Laurens Bakker is a lecturer and researcher based at the department of anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on conflict over natural resource usage –in particular land- and the socio-political and legal role of security groups in Indonesian society. Laurens is presently heading the Securing the Local Project; a comparative study of the role of civilian security initiatives in countering extremist violence in Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria. He has been following events in East Kalimantan since conducting his PhD research there, some fifteen years ago, and has never managed to really get away.