Refugees Flee as Ethnic Violence on Borneo Leaves 182 Dead

Refugees fleeing ethnic slaughter in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island boarded a navy ship here today as two bodies floated by the dock--reminders of the continuing violence that has claimed at least 182 lives.

Thousands of refugees crammed aboard trucks and headed to the river port, where ships were preparing to evacuate them to Indonesia’s Java island. Others were being taken overland to other parts of the Central Kalimantan province.

Violence between Borneo’s native Dayak people and immigrants from Madura island erupted in Sampit and surrounding districts Sunday. The groups regularly clash over land disputes.

In Sampit, the bodies of about 30 adults and children lay outside the hospital in a bloody heap. Some corpses were headless. Dayaks armed with machetes and daggers have paraded the severed heads of Madurese victims around the town.

The death toll has increased daily, with officials today reporting that 182 had been killed.

Two joint police and military battalions were being deployed to reinforce local security forces in Sampit, about 480 miles northeast of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

In Palangkaraya, the provincial capital that is about 100 miles east of Sampit, air force C-130 Hercules transports were bringing in companies of heavily armed soldiers who were continuing on to the town.

This week’s killings on Borneo--which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei--are the latest in a series of bloody outbreaks of violence in the province. In the last several years, hundreds have died in clashes in the area.