Aid for Bangkalan refugees

BANGKALAN, Madura Island: East Java's religious community, the Chinese-Indonesian community in Surabaya and the East Java Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization joint team for refugees, gave aid to Sampit refugees in the village of Maeron and Klambasan in the district of Sepuluh, Bangkalan regency on Sunday.

The aid, consisting of 1,000 boxes of sanitary napkins for women, 14 sacks of used clothes, 10 boxes of soap, 500 kilograms of sugar, 110 boxes of mineral water, 20 boxes of coffee and 510 boxes of instant noodles, were handed over directly to the refugees by the coordinator of the NU joint team for refugees, Sholeh Hayat.

To date the Sepuluh district accommodates a total of 8,083 Madurese people who left the town of Sampit, Central Kalimantan, following a massive outbreak of violence targeted at Madurese people by local Dayaks.

According to Antara news agency, there are 58,576 Madurese who have left their homes in Central Kalimantan. That number included the latest group of 146 people who arrived by Navy war ship Teluk Bone on Sunday.

"There are no more Madurese people left in Sampit, except those who are hiding in the jungles," said Soleh. (sur)