After his house went up in flames and one of his neighbors was decapitated, Amidi, his wife and child fled into the jungle. A mob of ethnic Dayaks chased them with hunting dogs. The terrified family hid out, eating snakes and bats, before being rescued by soldiers and taken to a refugee camp. So it goes in Indonesia. Since strongman Suharto was deposed nearly one year ago, the lid has blown off a cauldron of simmering resentments.
Every day brings new reports of unspeakable acts.
On the lush island of Ambon, a Muslim brags off-handedly how his friends burned Christian houses, while a Christian stabs her finger into a map of the city. On April 29, violence returned to Jakarta when a bomb exploded in the Istiqlal mosque, located a few hundred meters from the presidential palace. Sometimes it seems the entire nation has gone mad. In fact, tens of millions of Indonesians live in peace. Yet even those not personally threatened by the lynchings, beheadings and beatings are painfully aware that Indonesia has come to be seen as the most violent nation in Southeast Asia - more so even than Cambodia.