Borneo police crack down

Terrified refugees flee the violence

Indonesian police have shot at least five people in Borneo as part of attempts to halt ethnic violence in which more than 400 people have died.

To prevent more brutality, [officers] have been instructed to shoot rioters on sight

General Bimantoro

A police spokeswoman said police have also begun disarming ethnic Dayaks in Borneo's Central Kalimantan province, the scene of the violence.

"We have confiscated 1,053 weapons, including swords, spears and axes", spokeswoman Andi Selvy told the AFP news agency.

The order to shoot on sight came after more than a week of brutal attacks by Dakays against Madurese settlers in Central Kalimantan.

The Dayaks say they will not stop until they have forced the entire migrant population out of the Kalimantan area - in total at least 60,000 people.

''To prevent more brutality, [officers] have been instructed to shoot rioters on sight,'' the official Antara news agency quoted police chief General Bimantoro as saying.

General Bimantoro flew to the town of Sampit in Central Kalimantan on Wednesday as the violence apparently began to abate. Local reports said rain had helped police efforts to stop the killing and burning in the region.

Massacre

The single worst known massacre so far was discovered on Monday, when the decapitated bodies of 118 Madurese were found.

Indonesian police say hundreds of Dayak tribesmen attacked a police-protected convoy of 300 Madurese refugees and butchered and beheaded them.

The refugees, fleeing almost 10 days of fighting, had been hiding in the jungle but returned to a town near the provincial capital of Palangakaraya after surviving for days without food or shelter.

They had apparently secured agreement from the Dayaks that they could then be transported out of the area. But some - including women and children - were taken to the football ground and killed.

'Total panic'

A national police spokesman, Dede Widayadi, said policemen escorting the group from remote villages to the city of Sampit were overwhelmed and ran away.

They were not involved in the fight - they were beheaded, they were butchered

Indonesian police

Another police commander, Tato Suharto, told AFP there was "total panic" when the convoy was attacked.

"They were beheaded, they were butchered, they were chopped up," he said.

It has also been confirmed that seven people have been killed in Palangkaraya.

Elsewhere, in a sign of the increasingly tense security situation, a gunfight broke out between police and soldiers in Sampit.

Refugees relocated

Dayak gangs have butchered men, women and children with machetes, spears and axes.

Thousands of terrified refugees have been moved from jungle hideaways to makeshift camps.

Madurese are desperate to get on boats out of Borneo

A hospital official said about 13,000 people were being relocated from the jungle to a refugee camp next to the police station in Sampit.

About 10,000 refugees have already been evacuated by ship.

The bloody outbreak of violence - the worst in the region since 1997 - is the latest of a series on the island, sparked mainly by disputes over land and jobs.

The Dayaks - traditionally farmers and hunters - feel marginalised by rapid development in the region and view the migrant Madurese as aggressive settlers.