For the next proposed attack on a small village two hours down-river, the village headman explained yesterday, a shaman with special skills will be required as the 50 Madurese there have two guns. Tiel Jelau, the 73-year-old chieftain, said: "Our fighters will need a spell to make them immune to bullets.
"We will gather more fighters and go to Mendawai and ask the Madurese to leave under police protection. If they don't . . ." Mr Jelau is an establishment figure. He is a cousin of the former provincial governor and head of the local independence war veterans' association. A picture of him shaking hands with former president Suharto adorns the wall of his home.
In many other countries he might well be arrested for aiding and abetting murder but in Indonesia he will remain a respected figure and continue the campaign to purge his homeland of the Madurese. Out of 100,000 Madurese in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, about 20,000 have been shipped out this week and a similar number are waiting in a squalid refugee camp in Sampit to follow.
The rampage in Sampit followed the murder of a Dayak by three settlers during a gambling row in December in a nearby village. The young warrior, who comes from a remote settlement, only travelled to support other Dayaks when he saw on television that they were under threat in Sampit. He had had little contact with the Madurese before he began killing them.