Instances of mass murder and gross human rights violations in Kalimantan, Indonesia and the processes underlying them are multiple and complex. Government authorities have always placed a greater value on the island's vast natural resources than on its sparse population, whose exceedingly diverse indigenous peoples have been reduced to the collective label Dayak. State-building on the island by central government authorities predates the New Order regime (1966–1998). But it was not until 1966, when General Suharto assumed the presidency, that a government based in Jakarta and backed by Western allies acquired sufficient financial and governmental capacities to penetrate the island systematically. In late 1967, such state intrusion into the province of West Kalimantan instigated horrific bloodshed. Suharto's military officers, in an effort to wipe out a local communist rebellion, used indigenous "warrior" Dayaks to expunge ethnic...