Dayak and Malay warriors, some wearing shirts stained with victims' blood, pillaged and burned abandoned Madurese homes in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan on Borneo

March 21, 1999
Web posted at: 1:10 p.m. EST (1810 GMT)

In this story: Reports of cannibalism Security forces do not intervene Common bond of hatred RELATED STORIES, SITES

SAMBAS, Indonesia (CNN) -- Armed mobs on the island of Borneo exhibited severed human body parts on Sunday, as trophies from five days of ethnic riots that have left nearly 100 dead.

A dispute over a bus fare last week ignited the animosity of ethnic Malays and Dayaks toward immigrants from Madura, another island in Indonesia.

The ensuing violence was fueled by long-standing rivalries among the ethnic groups, and was marked by gruesome ritual killings rarely known since pre-colonial days.

Crowds of bystanders cheered a display of severed heads of Madurese men in Sambas, about 900 km (560 miles) east of Jakarta in West Kalimantan.

One severed head was displayed on a main road atop an oil drum with a cigarette stuffed in its nostril.

Reports of cannibalism

Malays and Dayaks armed with weapons ranging from guns, swords and spears to farm tools carried human ears, scalps and hearts as souvenirs.

Witnesses reported cannibalism by some of the rioters. "I saw a body being burned by mobs. It was then divided up and eaten," said one resident of the town of Singkawang.

Indonesian military sources put the death toll at 96, but killings in remote areas are expected to boost that figure.

Much of the Madurese population -- more than 15,000 people -- has fled the area.

Security forces do not intervene

Armed gangs hunt for Madurese who did not have time to get away

Police and soldiers did not intervene as rioters in Sambas systematically smashed and incinerated home after home.

Security forces have passed severed heads in the road without stopping and allowed armed men to roar through towns on motorcycles and in trucks. Police pickup trucks have even given lifts to hitchhiking warriors.

Ethnic Malays make up 40 percent of the population of Indonesia's West Kalimantan province. The Madurese population makes up 2 percent, and most arrived under a government forced resettlement plan, to move people away from more crowded islands.

Common bond of hatred

Shared resentment of the Madurese has led to closer relations between Malays and Dayaks, who wore yellow and red headbands to show solidarity.

Even ethnic Chinese, the frequent target of violence elsewhere in Indonesia, pitched in to help the rioters by distributing water and dried noodles to them while they ransacked and burned houses.

In similar bloodletting in late 1996 and early 1997, when Dayak men assaulted Madurese communities, soldiers tried to halt the fighting by firing on mobs in some instances. Human rights groups say up to 500 people died.

A weak central government and a demoralized military have largely been unable to contain the violence that has swept Indonesia in the past year, leaving hundreds dead.

In addition to the riots in Borneo, sectarian clashes on the eastern island of Ambon have killed more than 200 people this year.

Indonesia's authoritarian former leader, Suharto, was largely successful in keeping a lid on the social tensions that have always lingered among Indonesia's 210 million people. But his tight controls have unraveled as Indonesia moves toward democracy.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.