Indonesian refugees recall Borneo horror

One boy had fingers cut off both his hands

Refugees who fled the savage attacks on the Indonesian part of Borneo island are recalling horror stories of indigenous Dayaks taking up with relish their centuries-old custom of headhunting.

They have slaughtered my three children and burned my house to the ground. I had to hide on a boat

A Madurese survivor

Some 5,000 traumatised refugees lugging tattered suitcases and hungry babies fell into the arms of anxious relatives at Surabaya port in East Java, vowing never to return.

"In the middle of the road, the mobs stopped our car. They dragged out one passenger and cut off his head. Then they cut off three more heads," one refugee told Reuters news agency.

"Three of my kids were crying of fright," she added. "We thought we were next but they left us alone. They said 'Do not be afraid, you're not Madurese. We know how Madurese smell'."

Thousands of scared and hungry Madurese settlers are sheltered at government offices in Sampit.

Their numbers were swollen by more than 10,000 new arrivals on Monday, as people filtered out of the jungles where they had been hiding.

In the middle of the road, the mobs stopped our car. They dragged out one passenger and cut off his head. Then they cut off three more heads

A refugee from East Java

While hundreds were murdered, most did manage to escape.

"I jumped in the river as they threw spears at me," Masudi Muali said after arriving in East Java on a ferry packed with refugees.

He said he and 26 of his friends were dragged out of their Islamic school in Sampit by Dayaks armed with swords and spears.

"They told us that if we didn't resist we wouldn't be killed. Some of us managed to run off. I don't know if the others were caught again."

Another Madurese refugee told of how ten people from his village had been butchered.

"We had a good life before all of this happened and now we are suffering. My house is destroyed," he said.

According to media reports, the massacres in and around Sampit involved decapitations and instances of cannibalism.

Some of the Madurese migrants ran as fast as they could after seeing many of their friends and relatives beheaded by Dayak tribesmen. But others were not so lucky.

A Madurese girl waits on a crowded truck of refugees

"Scores of bodies now lay stacked in a Sampit hotel, all missing their heads and hearts", an eyewitness said.

A seven-year-old boy, who arrived in Surabaya with his father, had fingers cut off both hands by the Dayaks.

"I had to leave after there was news anyone who could take my head would get a reward" said a Madurese refugee who years ago left the crowded island of Madura off East Java to seek opportunity in the resource-rich province.

More than 2,000 people have died in Indonesia's Borneo provinces in the past two years as simmering tension between the two groups has occasionally erupted.

Dayaks resent Madurese for their financial dominance.

Some 3,000 people were killed in months of clashes in West Kalimantan in 1999 when local Malays, supported by Dayak tribesmen, took on the Madurese.