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.