Top Indonesian security officials headed to a ravaged Borneo district today where 400 people have been slaughtered in a week of ethnic bloodshed and spear-carrying gangs still roam the streets unhindered.
The visit will mark the first serious response from the embattled government in Jakarta to the violence between indigenous Dayaks and immigrants from Madura island off Java that has also created an estimated 40,000 refugees.
The official death toll is 270 but the state Antara news agency said around 400 people had been killed according to information collected by the agency. Dozens of people have been wounded.Smoke rose from five places in the town of Sampit in Central Kalimantan province, scene of most of the killings. It was unclear if there had been any fresh bloodshed.
An official in Sampit expressed shock at the reluctance of the 2,000 soldiers and police there to disarm marauding Dayaks, once fearsome headhunters, and whom witnesses say have carried out most of the massacres.
Officials have said troops and police had not been ordered to disarm the gangs in Sampit, 750 kmnortheast of Jakarta. Military officials have not been available to comment.
A local government official in Palangkaraya, capital of Central Kalimantan, said the delegation of top security officials was expected to fly into the river town after midday.