By
The Associated Press
SAMPIT, Indonesia - Driving past butchered bodies and the remains of their burned-out houses, thousands of refugees flocked yesterday to a port to try to escape ethnic violence on Indonesia's Borneo Island.
At least 270 people have been slaughtered on the island in the past week, spreading fears that Indonesia could be headed for an economic collapse unless the government stops the killings and restores political stability.
"They (the security forces) are doing their best to stop the violence. We have deployed reinforcements," Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters after touring the violence-wracked city of Sampit.
"We will control the situation and enforce the law."
But even as he spoke, homes were being torched and gangs were setting up roadblocks in Borneo's central Kalimantan province, in the capital of Palangkaraya, 130 miles away from Sampit, raising concerns that the violence may spread.
As the refugees waited for navy ships to take them away, a mob of about 1,000 native Dayaks armed with spears and machetes hunted down immigrants believed to be hiding in forests around Sampit.
Reporters saw three freshly killed bodies lying on the roadside - two with their heads cut off, and one with the heart ripped out.
"I have eaten a bit of a person's heart," said one of the apparent killers, Fabian Charles. "It gave me strength and I took his spirit."
This week's killings are the latest in a series of violent outbreaks on Borneo; in the past several years, hundreds have died in clashes in the area, most sparked by land disputes between the Dayaks and Madurese immigrants.
The Dayaks are fighting immigrants from the island of Madura, who were resettled on the island by the government to ease overcrowding in other areas.
About 7,500 people fleeing the killings piled onto two navy ships to be evacuated.
However, about 10,000 people failed to secure a place on either ship and were forced to take shelter at a squalid, makeshift camp outside a local police station while gangs of armed Dayak men roamed Sampit, about 480 miles northeast of Jakarta.
Several of the refugees lambasted Indonesia's security forces for failing to protect them and for not providing a safe passage out of the town.
"My two children are dead. They cut their heads off. They slaughtered my husband and dragged his body through the streets," said Suriya Fauzi, a refugee waiting to be evacuated. "The police and army did nothing. They let this happen."
Despite two joint police and military battalions being dispatched to the region, few officers or soldiers could be seen patrolling the city's streets.
At one police station, officers played chess as dozens of Dayaks set fire to the nearby houses of fleeing migrants. A headless body lay only 100 yards up the road. Police say they have already arrested about 80 people.
Sampit Mayor Mohamed Wahyudi said at least 210 people have been slaughtered in and around the city since the fighting started Feb. 18. But he said the killings had spread and it was not clear how many people had died in outlying villages.
Malaysia, which shares a border with Indonesia on Borneo, said yesterday it would step up border patrols to keep out refugees.
Decomposing corpses still lay in the ruins of several houses in Sampit. Qomaruddin Sukhemi, a doctor at the local Murjani hospital, said up to 1,000 people may have been killed in the region.
Dayak leader Christopel Hutte said his men had killed more than 1,000 Madurese settlers. He said the slaughter would continue until all of them had fled Central Kalimantan province.
Around 100,000 people live in Sampit, almost a third of them immigrants.
