(9 Mar 2001) Natural Sound
xfa
Hundreds of Dayak demonstrators protesting police brutality rampaged through this central Borneo town Friday, setting ablaze security posts and a police truck.
The latest incidents came a day after riot police shot dead as many as six indigenous Dayaks following a visit by Indonesia's head of state.
In Palangkaraya, authorities said that Dayak mobs killed a Madurese settler and paraded his severed head through a village southwest of the provincial capital.
They were soon joined by several hundred Dayaks armed with machetes and spears, who attacked and torched several empty security posts and set fire to a police truck parked nearby.
They gathered stolen police riot gear, setting fire to it on the street.
Dayaks claim they have been robbed of their birthright by government policies under the rule of former dictator Suharto, who was ousted in 1998.
Suharto encouraged tens of thousands of settlers from overpopulated Madura to move to Borneo and establish farms on Dayak tribal land.
Meanwhile, about 500 students from local colleges rallied at the site of Thursday's clash to protest the killing by police of one of their colleagues.
Wahid's administration has said it would work to reconcile the rival ethnic groups with the aim of repatriating tens of thousands of Madurese refugees.
In Jakarta, President Abdurrahman Wahid who had traveled to Palangkaraya on Thursday hoping to bring peace to Central Kalimantan province where Dayaks have slaughtered about 450 settlers appealed for calm and shrugged off growing calls for him to quit.
"I am convinced that we can overcome all problems," he said.
He blamed the violence between Dayaks and migrants from Madura island on a small group of agitators and said most people in the province wanted to live in peace.
His mission to quell ethnic tensions in Kalimantan on Thursday went tragically wrong when Dayak protesters threw rocks at riot police who responded with gunfire just minutes after Wahid flew out of the region.
Media reports said six men died in Thursday's clash. However, police said four civilians and one policeman were killed.
The bloodshed was a further blow to Wahid, who is fending off calls for his resignation over a range of crises and scandals as Indonesia struggles with its uneasy transition to democracy.
Adding to Wahid's woes was continuing violence elsewhere in the country, and a sharp drop in the value of the national currency due to the prolonged turmoil.
In the westernmost province of Aceh, seven people - including five refugees - died in clashes between government forces and separatist rebels, police and human rights activists said Friday.
SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa Indonesia)
"There was only one warning shot followed straight away by shots directly at protesters. I'm wondering why the police didn't use tear gas to disperse the crowds, which we know they have."
SUPER CAPTION: Fitriansyah Mathias, witness to yesterday shooting
SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa Indonesia)
"I was looking for my younger brother and then realised I had been shot. I fell to the ground straight away."
SUPER CAPTION: Bimbo Sumarinanto, man injured yesterday shooting
SOUNDBITE (Bahasa Indonesia)
"The wounds appear to be from bullets and the impact of hard objects, especially those wounds on the heads and faces of the patients."
SUPER CAPTION: Doctor Hafner Fandan
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
