David Watts, Singkawang – Indonesia has sent in 1,000 armed police officers to try to stamp out ethnic violence between Madurese migrants and locals yesterday before it spreads further in this province in Borneo.
With the death toll at about 200, thousands of Dayaks and Malays were reported last night to be surrounding an area where 4,000 Madurese remain trapped, awaiting evacuation by two companies of troops on board helicopters. In one incident yesterday, soldiers with automatic rifles fired volleys to disperse mobs before rescuing a dozen Madurese who were sheltering under tarpaulins.
Three human heads were later seen on the road with two bodies near by, their hearts and livers cut out. The official Antara news agency said that the military would take charge of the area in an attempt to restore order.
Another 2,000 Madurese were awaiting evacuation at the airbase in Singkawang while two teams of soldiers and police evacuated 400 people from Belitung in the Semalantan sub-district.
Reports persisted among distraught families of pockets of people stranded at the mercy of the Malays and Dayaks, who have been rampaging across the area armed with machetes, spears and old rifles, burning homes of fleeing Madurese settlers. So far the burnt houses and pathetic remnants left by a trail of refugees are confined to the lush western seaboard, but there are fears that it could spread if the Government cannot bring it under control soon.
As dusk fell last night, regional experts said they feared that the Madurese might have hidden in a rainforest a few miles inland and be waiting to take revenge. Their women and children, meanwhile, are packing the regional capital, Pontianak, after fleeing in cars, boats and army lorries.
Every available public building has been taken over and, with more arriving all the time, the total has topped 13,000. A large batch arrived overnight in the city's port on an American-built destroyer of the Indonesian Navy that was packed to the gunwales with refugees fleeing from the north.
The road north out of Pontianak to Singkawang shows signs of those who escaped south by more conventional means. Scraps of clothing lie on the narrow road. Here and there, young men carry the long, curved-blade parangs used by farmers clearing land but which are also a devastating weapon.
More than 2,000 Madurese have taken refuge in the Pontianak sports stadium while others are staying in warehouses and with families. They say they are too frightened to return home and many have little to return to.
It is hard to see how the Government can create the confidence necessary for them to return without taking the risk of involving the Armed Forces in direct confrontation with either group. Since the army is disliked by both sides, there is the potential for a bloodbath. Nonetheless, the army was last night moving machineguns and automatic rifles into the main hotel in Singkawang.
The unrest in Kalimantan is different from the recent clashes in the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, and East Timor, where the land area involved and the issues have been confined. In Kalimantan, it could engulf one of the largest land masses in the archipelago, posing a dilemma for the army in trying to bring the ethnic violence under control. All the clashes, including worker demonstrations about economic conditions, are expected to worsen as the June 7 general election draws near – the first free election for 45 years.