or do not have a clear religious affiliation. . The economical crisis of the 1990s resulted in frequent conflicts among Buru people over religious grounds. So within a few days in December 1999, 43 people were killed and at least 150 houses burned in the Wainibe village. History Precolonial period One of the first mentions of Buru occurred in the Nagarakretagama – an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, the ruler of the Majapahit Kingdom, dating back to 1365. The island appears in the third line of 15th song in the list of lands subordinate to Majapahit under the name Hutan Kadali. In the 16th–17th centuries Buru was claimed by the rulers of Ternate island and by the Portuguese; both claims were, however, symbolic, as neither party controlled the island, but only visited it on trade matters. More active were Makassar people from Sulawesi island, who had built fortifications on Buru and forced the natives to grow valuable spices, such as clove. Colonial period The rivalry between the Makassar and Dutch East India Company for control over production and trade in spices in the east of the Malay archipelago resulted in military conflict. In 1648, a Dutch expedition to Buru expelled the Makassar from the island and destroyed their buildings and boats; instead of re-using the existing clove plantations, the Dutch burned more than three thousand trees, as they were not in position to settle on the island and were afraid that the Makassar might return after their departure. They returned after several years and raised a fortress armed with four cannon and staffed by 24 soldiers in 1658 at the southern coast of Kayeli Bay, in the eastern part of Buru. A permanent settlement was established at the fortress, which became the administrative center of the island. About 2,000 native inhabitants of the island were forcibly relocated to this area from other parts of the island, including much of the tribal nobility, and about thirteen large villages were built around the fort: Lumaite, Hukumina, Palamata, Tomahu, Masarete, Waisama, Marulat, Leliali, Tagalisa, Ilat, Kayeli, Bara and Lisela. The relocation was designed to facilitate control over the local population and provide a workforce for clove fields which were being planted by the Dutch in this part of the island. The Kayeli ethnicity with its own language was formed as a mixture of the newly arriving settlers and the native population of