Surprise attack on striking workers leaves one dead
JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of workers of car upholstery producer PT Kadera AR Indonesia in Pulogadung industrial estate were attacked while on strike in the early hours of Thursday, leaving one dead and 11 injured.
The workers, who had camped inside the factory since the strike took effect on March 19, were asleep when around 500 unidentified people, armed with machetes, swords and homemade bombs, arrived on buses and started to attack.
East Jakarta Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Agus Irianto identified the dead worker as Kimun Effendi, 21, a resident of Jl. Kedondong II in Kranji, Bekasi.
Agus said that Kimun could have died from blast wounds, caused by a homemade explosive thrown at the striking workers during the attack.
"We suspect the attack was conducted by workers of the same factory who opposed the strike, plus hoodlums who were hired by the factory to intimidate the protesters. This is only a suspicion however. We have yet to question the company director," said Agus.
One of the striking workers, Supriyadi, told The Jakarta Post the dawn attack was aimed at forcing him and his colleagues to abandon the factory's main plant.
He said some 600 workers of the factory, owned by a Japanese investment company, had been on strike since March 19, demanding a 100 percent salary-hike.
The strike brought production activities to a complete halt.
"About 400 of us were sleeping in the factory's grounds... when an unidentified group of people suddenly arrived at the factory at about 2 a.m on about 10 buses," Supriyadi said at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, where one of his injured friends was receiving medical care.
He said the striking workers camped in the factory at night, and staged their protest during the day.
"They brandished machetes and samurai swords and their screaming woke us up. They ordered us to leave the factory and halt the strike," Supriyadi recalled.
"We resisted their attack by hosing them with water. But before leaving, the attackers threw an explosive at us."
Kimun died five minutes after he arrived at the Pondok Kopi Hospital in East Jakarta. One of the injured victims, Rachmat Hidayat, 22, was transferred to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta.
Another wounded worker was admitted to Abdul Salim Hospital in East Jakarta.
While Rachmat was undergoing a second operation to cure his broken thigh bone at RSCM, Kimun's brother, Kamaludin, carried his sibling's corpse away before a postmortem was performed.
Kamaludin accused a group, paid by the company to intimidate the striking workers, of killing his brother.
A member of staff at the company said the director of PT Kadera was not available. The firm's vice president, Rulichi Sujatim, could not be reached for comment either.
East Jakarta Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Agus said one of the company's directors would face questioning in connection with the attack.
"We are scheduled to question the director of the factory. We are currently questioning a factory employee on the matter," Agus said.
He admitted that only a few police officers were present during the raid, and that they were grossly outnumbered.
"Most of our officers were deployed in the Matraman area where a number of brawls have taken place over the past two days, and the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta, which still needs proper police security in case prisoners go on the rampage again," Agus said.
In a separate development, city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul Alam said on Thursday that some 31 middle-ranking police officers across Greater Jakarta, were receiving special training in dealing with crowds, should protests turn violent.
"A number of officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have recently arrived and are currently training our Greater Jakarta police officers, for better handling of violent protests," Anton said, adding that the training would last until the second week of April. (ylt/01)