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100 dead in ethnic clashes
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MORE than a hundred people have died in bloody intercommunal violence on Indonesia's Borneo island, police confirmed yesterday.
Many of the dead were mutilated and at least 20 bodies were beheaded, said Sgt Tigei, a police spokesman in the town of Sampit, in Central Kalimantan province.
The state Antara news agency said gangs paraded several severed heads around the town.
Tigei said skirmishes were continuing and several houses were still on fire.
Clashes between indigenous Dayaks and immigrants from other parts of Indonesia first erupted on Sunday in Sampit, about 800 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.
Hospital official Komaruddin Sukhemi said at least 51 bodies had been brought to the local morgue.
Hundreds of people were seeking shelter in the hospital complex and at police stations.
Enmity between the Dayaks and the migrants has often erupted into fierce brawls in the region. The fighting is often triggered by land disputes.
Hundreds of people have died in the past few years in a series of clashes.
Over the past 40 years, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from Madura island, have resettled in Kalimantan _ the Indonesian part of Borneo island _ as part of a government transmigration programme designed to relieve overcrowding in densely populated areas.
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