Maluku: Anomie to reconciliation

Abstract

The first wave of Muslim-Christian violence in the province of Maluku in Eastern Indonesia broke out in 1999. Most of the 5,000-plus deaths occurred in and around the city of Ambon. In the analysis presented here, the conflict will be interpreted in anomie theory terms (Durkheim 1897; Merton 1949). Anomie is defined here as instability resulting from a breakdown of the regulatory order that secures norms.