(24 Feb 2001) +++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY CONTAINS IMAGES OF DEAD BODIES (GRAPHIC IMAGES)+++
Indonesian/Nat
XFA
In an atmosphere of panic and chaos, thousands of people fleeing the ethnic slaughter on Borneo Island struggled Saturday onto overcrowded trucks heading for a port where naval ships were standing by to evacuate them.
The bodies of victims lie in open carts waiting for burial while others were seen floating past the crowded pier where hundreds wait in overcrowded makeshift camps in the hope of reaching a safer destination.
Government officials said the refugees would be shipped to the port of Surabaya on southern Java Island.
People trying to flee overland came up against roadblocks manned by armed indigenous Dayak gangs.
They threatened to kill any immigrants from the island of Madura who tried to pass.
Over the past 40 years, tens of thousands of people, mostly Madurese, have resettled to Borneo in central Kalimantan province.
The government transmigration program that brought them there was designed to relieve overcrowding in other areas, but it has sparked resentment among the indigenous Dayak population.
Moving with grim purpose the Dayaks have smashed the houses of Madurese peoples into rubble and matchwood before setting them on fire.
The leader of the Dayak people, Abdul Hadi Bondo, was with the gang as they went about their work.
Bondo says the Dayak will not and cannot live with the Madurese who have been resettled in Borneo by the Indonesian government.
Two joint police and military battalions were being deployed to reinforce overwhelmed local security forces in
the town of Sampit, about 800 kilometers (480 miles) northeast of Jakarta.
In the provincial capital of Palangkaraya, some 220 kilometers (130 miles) to the east of Sampit, air force
C-130 Hercules transports were bringing in companies of heavily armed soldiers who were continuing on to Sampit.
A local police spokeswoman Lt. Andi Selvi said 182 people had been confirmed dead since fighting first broke out last Sunday.
But unconfirmed reports in the Indonesian media said that up to 400 may have died.
As the heavily laden trucks brought frightened people to the port area from government buildings and police posts
where they had sought refuge, several dozen Dayak natives armed with spears and machetes stood by and watched
impassively.
Indonesia's president Abdurrahman Wahid called for calm and said efforts were being made to restore peace in the region, state news agency Antara reported.
Wahid was speaking in Abu Dhabi.
He is on a 15-day trip to Africa and the Middle East and is due back in Jakarta on March 7.
This week's killings are the latest in a series of bloody outbreaks of violence.
In the past several years, hundreds have died in clashes in the area, most sparked by land disputes between Dayaks and Madurese.
Indonesian and foreign non-governmental relief organizations were gearing up Saturday to provide medical
assistance, food and shelter for the thousands of people displaced by the violence.
SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa Indonesian)
"I've already been here a week and we are already suffering because we don't have enough aid. My wife and children are missing and I just want to get out of here as quickly as possible."
SUPERCAPTION: Mohamad Yasin, Madurese refugee
SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa Indonesian)
"We, all the Dayak people, do not want to live together with the Madurese because they don't want to live together with us and they are starting these problems first."
SUPER CAPTION: Abdul Hadi Bondo, leader of the Dayak people
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
