SINGKAWANG, Indonesia (AP) -- Troops guarded several thousand refugees Wednesday in a part of Borneo where armed gangs have killed as many as 200 people.
On Tuesday, security forces shot and killed four fighters while trying to disperse indigenous Malay and Dayak men who tried to attack immigrants from the island of Madura.Military transport planes have flown in hundreds of reinforcements to help evacuate remaining Madurese in Sambas district, an Indonesian coastal area on western Borneo island.
The 3,000 police and soldiers in the region are outnumbered by warriors with spears, swords and homemade guns who control many villages.
Authorities planned Wednesday to use trucks with police escorts to ferry refugees from government compounds in the towns of Tebas and Sambas to safety in the provincial capital, Pontianak.
The ethnic slaughter started a week ago and has ebbed only because most Madurese have fled their homes to live in government buildings and sports stadiums. Their attackers have burned homes and even cut off the heads of their victims, displaying them before cheering crowds.