MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Striking workers went on a rampage

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Striking workers went on a rampage
again yesterday, throwing stones at factories and overturning
parked cars.

The chaos kept most business activities in the downtown area
at a complete halt.

At least 9,000 workers from 22 factories in the provincial
capital of nearly two million people continued to stage protests
to demand that the provincial administration and their employers
improve labor conditions.

Despite tight surveillance by security officers, strikers
overturned a number of cars and stoned their working places to
press their employers to meet their demands.

A number of unidentified individuals also vandalized the
three-story building of the Indonesian Institute for Children
Advocacy (LAAI), located in the central part of the city,
damaging office equipment.

"This brutal attack is aimed at weakening LAAI in its efforts
to fight for the interests of workers in the province," LAAI
Chairman Maiyasyak Johan told The Jakarta Post.

LAAI is acting on behalf of striking workers of PT Industri
Karet Deli to solve their conflict with management.

"Despite this brutality, we will never give up because we are
concerned with labor matters," he said.

The protesters which started their action on Thursday demanded
that the government to double the daily minimum wage from Rp
3,100 to Rp 7,000, allow them to set up an independent trade
union and thoroughly investigate the death of Rusli, a labor
activist whose corpse was found floating in the Deli River last
month.

Meanwhile, AFP reported from Singapore that tour operators
there had stopped selling tour packages to Medan after the
rioting which started in the city last Thursday. However, the
scheduled Singapore-Medan flight services have remained
unaffected.

The labor protests and rallies have turned into a bloody riot,
leaving a local Chinese businessman dead, twelve injured, 150
shops ransacked and looted and twelve cars set ablaze.

Nearly 80 factories in the Medan industrial zone and other
areas around the city remained closed out of fear that the
rioting would continue.

No local employers, many of whom were of Chinese descent, came
to their factories and most shops in the city remained closed.

Meanwhile, industrial strikes also went on in other towns such
as Pematang Siantar, 90 kilometers southeast of Medan, and
Delitua, Tanjung Morawa and Lubuk Pakam-- Medan's satellite
towns.

Approximately 3,000 workers from PT Sintong Sari Union, PT
Permona and NV Sumatra Trading Toba Company in Pematang Siantar
went to streets and refused to work unless the management raised
their daily wage.

The North Sumatra provincial police is investigating a number
of demonstrators detained for their involvement on last week's
riot.

"The protest rallies are spreading to other nearby towns while
the police are investigating the detainees," police spokesman Lt.
Col. Leo Sukardi said.

He did not mention any new arrests, but the Indonesian
Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) which organized the demonstration
said at least 20 workers have been arrested while several others
went missing. (rms)