Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how local communities in the eastern Indonesian province of North Maluku understand the concepts of peace and reconciliation as they attempt to rebuild communities torn apart by the ethnic and religious violence that swept the region in 1999-2001.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores local strategies for peace and reconciliation in post-conflict communities in the eastern Indonesian province of North Maluku. These communities were torn apart by a period of ethno-religious violence that swept the region from 1999 to 2001. The paper explores the different ways that local communities perceive of the concepts of "peace" and "reconciliation" in the aftermath of this violence. In the decade since the fighting stopped, communities have tried to re-build inter-faith relationships. The paper explores how certain portions of the community have sought to reinvigorate customary law as a conflict prevention mechanism and as a source of reconciliation. Those involved efforts believe that a revitalization of customary law will shift people's focus of identity from their religion, the cause of the recent conflict, to their ethnicity, a shift that would supposedly transcend religious differences. These efforts have taken the form of large scale public ceremonies, as well as efforts to revive particular customary notions about conflict resolution that had disappeared in the second half of the twentieth century. The paper also examines the ambivalence that has greeted this public rhetoric about peace and reconciliation from local communities. In particular I contrast grassroots understandings of the "peace" with how they are deployed with those of the local elite who are behind this revitalization effort.