Vaudine England – A week after vicious ethnic clashes broke out in Pontianak, the capital of Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, thousands of displaced Madurese are still too scared to leave seven refugee camps despite the lack of medical care and a shortage of water.

"There is a strong sense of isolation in the camps; the people there are feeling very defensive," a spokeswoman for Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland said. "They are extremely scared to go out and very cautious of who's going into the camps."

There is also sewage, rubbish and distress, with no end in sight to the communal hatred that led the Madurese to seek shelter. Although representatives of the two warring groups in Indonesian Borneo are remorseful about the killing spree, getting basic services working again is another matter. At the Untan camp, the lack of drinking water is becoming desperate.

Many businesses in Pontianak are re-opening and transport is approaching normal after last week's outburst of inter-ethnic anger in which indigenous Malays and Dayaks fought with the Madura island refugees. At least 11 people were killed, some of them decapitated. Several were murdered in full sight of police.

Although public order has been reinstated, the basic competition between indigenous and migrant communities remains unresolved. The most visible and vulnerable symbol of that divide is the string of camps housing the displaced Madurese.

Of the 40,000 Madurese in Pontianak, at least 14,000 have been in the squalid camps since earlier outbreaks of fighting in 1997 and 1998. Many other Madurese are staying with relatives around the city or are still taking refuge in police stations and government buildings.

Some of these people have lived in West Kalimantan for two generations. After the earlier clashes, some tried to return to Madura island, off the northeast coast of Java. But a lack of family ties and livelihood prospects sent many back to Pontianak refugee camps.

Last week's killings are a reminder of how intractable the problem is in West Kalimantan, where indigenous groups have seen their land taken by powerful companies or given to Madurese migrants by a Government trying to ease national overcrowding.

Indigenous leaders insist they will not allow Madurese to move back to their homes in Sambas, the site of earlier clashes. Nor do they want them in Pontianak, dimming hopes that a resettlement site being built outside Pontianak might be of help. With nowhere to go, the Madurese and their camps remain at risk.