Kai Besar

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Kei Besar ( Kai Besar, locally: Nuhu Yuut or Nusteen ) is a 550 km ², the island of the Kei islands in the archipelago of the Moluccas. The northern part of the island is called Tanjung Borang, and southern Tanjung Wedua.

Geography

Kei Besar is the easternmost of the Kei Islands. To the west lie beyond the Nerongstraße the main islands of the archipelago, Kei Kecil Kei and Dullah. Kei Besar is part of the government district ( kabupaten ) Maluku Tenggara Maluku province. Center and north-west form the sub-district ( Kecamatan ) Kei Besar with Nuhuyanan and two other islands. Capital is Eilat. The subdistrict Kei Besar Utara Timur with the main town Hollat ​​located in the northeast of the island. The subdistrict Kei Besar Selatan with the main town Weduar lies in the south. Offshore islands are here Dufin and Nasu Lar.

Population

The native population consists of Melanesians who have mixed with Malay ethnic groups. Land is mostly arable land of the village community and the person who manages it. The inhabitants of Kei Besar traditionally speak the Austronesian language Kei ( Saumlaki, Veveu Evav ). The population is predominantly Roman Catholic, some of them Muslim.

In the villages of Banda Eli ( Wadan El) and Banda Elat ( Eilat Wadan ) in the west and north-east of Kei Besar Bandanese the old language is spoken. Immigrants brought with them the language of the Banda Islands. They were expelled by the Dutch in the 17th century from their homeland. There the language is extinct. It differs significantly from the other languages ​​of southern Moluccas. The Banda speakers are predominantly Muslim faith.

History

1900 began to evangelize the Indian Protestant Kerk from Ambon to Kei Islands. 1905, they founded their center in the archipelago in Eilat.

From March to June 1999, there came on the Kei Islands fighting between Christians and Muslims. They began first in Tual, the district capital on Kei Dullah and then spread out to Eilat. A dispute between a Protestant and a Muslim politicians presumably led to the attack of residents from the Christian Weduar Feer ( Kei Besar Selatan ) on the Muslim village Larat. Several neighboring villages were in the fighting dragged into that then then spread out on Kei Kecil Kei Besars and along the coast. Only in June ended the riots. A total of 200 people were killed in the Kei Islands, 30,000 people ( one fourth of the total population of the Kei Islands) were on the run and 4,000 buildings were destroyed. In the refugee camps demanded malaria and other diseases more victims.