Borneo refugees in crisis

Refugees are living in squalid conditions

Refugees in Borneo's Central Kalimantan province are facing disease and malnutrition, and six have died while waiting to be evacuated from the island.

The strongest get whatever food there is

World Food Programme official

Some 40,000 Madurese are waiting for ships to take them to safety, fleeing ethnic violence which has left more than 400 dead.

After more than a week of inaction, Indonesian police are now under orders to shoot rioters on sight, and at least five people were killed on Wednesday.

The authorities are considering declaring a state civil emergency in the troubled province.

Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri and parliamentary leaders are to visit Kalimantan on Thursday to assess the situation.

Humanitarian crisis

Doctors at a refugee camp in the river port of Sampit say that there is a risk of an outbreak of typhoid.

Six refugees have died so far in the refugee camps

"We lack everything. We have hardly any food, water or medicine," said Doctor Qomaruddin Sukhami.

"It is chaos at the camp. No one is managing it," said Lenard Milich, a UN World Food Programme official.

"The strongest get whatever food there is."

Disinfectants and sleeping materials are also lacking.

Many refugees are suffering from diarrhoea, which has killed five so far, two of them children.

One distraught refugee committed suicide, doctors said.

Some aid has been provided by the Indonesia Red Cross, but other aid pledged by non-government organisations in Australia, Germany, and Singapore has yet to arrive.

Police action

No more violence against Madurese was reported on Wednesday, as police began to take firmer action against indigenous Dayak gangs, who have vowed to drive out all the Madurese settlers.

Dayaks have been looting property abandoned by the Madurese

''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 Sampit 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.

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.

Madurese who survived the massacres fled leaving their possessions behind

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.

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.