Borneo Mob, Police Clash After Wahid Visits Region

PALANGKARAYA, Indonesia — A peace mission by Indonesia’s head of state ended in bloodshed Thursday when police and native Dayaks clashed on Borneo island, where hundreds of people have been slaughtered in ethnic violence.

As many as six indigenous protesters were killed, the Kalteng Pos newspaper quoted local military chiefs as saying. Police said four died in the fighting.

Just minutes after President Abdurrahman Wahid flew out of the region, Dayak protesters threw rocks at riot police, who responded with gunfire. Some officers shot into the air, but others fired directly at the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Wahid earlier said the central government would work to reconcile the rival ethnic groups, with the aim of repatriating thousands of settlers from the island of Madura who have fled.

Witnesses said the president’s expressed hope of helping the Madurese return to Borneo infuriated the 300 Dayak protesters.

Wahid visited Central Kalimantan province after critics assailed him for not cutting short a two-week overseas trip despite a brutal rampage by Dayaks, who killed nearly 500 people, mainly Madurese.

The Indonesian president met with the provincial governor and other officials before flying to the town of Sampit, where many of the killings took place.

On Madura, two Dayak men were killed by Madurese refugees from Borneo in an apparent revenge attack, police said.