50,000 Madurese refugees living in squalor and constant fear, says report

Thousands of Madurese refugees who fled from head-chopping gangs in West Kalimantan are living in deplorable conditions with nowhere to go, according to a new report.

Refugees International said 50,000 Madurese were 'living in temporary camps without electricity, sanitation, health and education facilities in constant fear of attack by surrounding communities and, facing Indonesian government pressure to relocate to unknown and possibly worse conditions, the Madurese population of West Kalimantan faces an uncertain future'.

Local reports from East Java, where more Madurese are staying, add that government aid intended for the Madurese refugees has been embezzled.

The Refugees International report follows a visit to the Madurese by two agency members. Refugee International has former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, Queen Noor of Jordan and business tycoon George Soros on its board.

The plight of the Madurese is made more tragic by their inability to go to ancestral homes on Madura Island, northeast of Java, which is overpopulated and which many have never seen.

They were victims of attacks by indigenous residents of West Kalimantan, including the Dayak, who butchered about 500 Madurese to death and displaced many more in 1997 and 1999.

The indigenous peoples resent the Madurese takeover of land and opportunities, which had been encouraged by government transmigration programmes. 'The violence by Dayaks against the Madurese is rooted in the systematic marginalisation of the Dayak community,' the report says.