Three RI migrants killed in brawl

KUALA LUMPUR: Three Indonesian migrant workers were stabbed to death and several others injured during a clash between rival gangs in Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state, news reports said Tuesday.

Two of the dead were identified as Joni and Rosli, both 30.

The fight between ethnic Bugis and Bima workers occurred early Monday after several of them quarreled at a wedding feast held in a plantation in Batu Niah, some 120 kilometers south of Miri.

News reports did not say what the argument was about, but cited Miri deputy police chief Abang Abdillah Othman as saying that those involved in the brawl had been heavily drinking alcohol. He added that one person was arrested and two long- bladed knives were seized.

The plantation employs about 300 Indonesian workers from the Bugis and Bima ethnic groups. Malaysia employs hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from neighboring nations, especially Indonesia.

But increasing riots, ethnic strife and crime involving foreign laborers in recent years have prompted Malaysia to impose mass deportations of illegal immigrants and more stringent entry requirements. --AP