RI rioters to be prosecuted, deported

RI rioters to be prosecuted, deported

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

A total of 125 Indonesian textile workers have been arrested
after a riot over drug tests which has outraged Malaysia and
embarrassed Jakarta, police said Tuesday.

More arrests were imminent and those found guilty of taking
part in the rampage, in which police vehicles were overturned and
officers stoned, faced deportation, said Negeri Sembilan state
police chief Mohamed Yunos Othman.

Some 400 Indonesians staged the protest at a textile factory
in the central state last Thursday after police tried to detain
16 of their co-workers for drug abuse.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad responded to the
riot by saying the government would review recruitment of foreign
workers and give priority to those from countries other than
Indonesia.

Indonesian ministers have apologized on behalf of the
government and called for punishment to be limited to those
involved in the riot.

Malaysia is home to some 700,000 foreign workers, mainly from
Indonesia, as well as hundreds of thousands of illegal
immigrants.

Just three days after the riot, about 70 Indonesian
construction workers armed with machetes went on the rampage and
damaged food stalls run by fellow Indonesians at Cyberjaya, south
of the Malaysia's capital.

Mahathir said Tuesday that foreigners who did not obey
Malaysian laws would not be tolerated. Security in coastal areas
would be tightened, those without proper documents would be
deported and the number of work permits would be reduced.

"I think there are too many of them. If it becomes a big
movement, we will face problems," he was quoted as saying by the
official Bernama news agency.

"It seems that they want to make their own laws, reject our
laws. This we cannot accept."

In December, more than 2,000 illegal immigrants, including
1,560 Indonesians, rioted at a detention center and torched a
section of their quarters to escape deportation.