Fourteen declared suspects after attack

PATI, Central Java: Police declared fourteen latex tappers as suspects on Thursday in the torching of a rubber factory in Karangsari subdistrict.

The Pati Police's chief of detectives, Detective Adj. Insp. Sumardika, said that the 14 were declared suspects after preliminary investigations found that they were responsible for the attack.

The police were questioning 39 other latex tappers at police headquarters here, said Sumardika.

All 53 latex tappers, who are Karangsari residents, were arrested on Tuesday on charges of setting fire earlier in the morning to a factory belonging to rubber processing company PT Rumpun Sari Alam.

They claimed they had set the factory ablaze after the company rejected their demands for a 50 percent share of each liter of latex tapped in the company's plantation here. -- JP