JAKARTA: Thousands of angry Indonesian factory workers set fire
to cars and a warehouse yesterday after an Indian company executive
called them 'stupid', police and media reports said.
Nine people were reported to have been injured when workers went
on the rampage at a factory belonging to Drydock World Graha in
Batam city. Two of the injured had to be taken to hospital.
'An Indian company executive called us, Indonesian workers,
'stupid' and this made us very angry,' a worker known only as Disra
was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.
Indonesian police spokesman Zainuri Lubis said: 'It started when
an Indian manager yelled something rude to an Indonesian worker.
Word spread, and in the end, about 5,000 angry workers got together
and got violent.'
About 400 police officers were called to the scene and they
evacuated 41 unidentified foreign staff from the seaside factory in
boats, Antara reported.
Up to 20 cars were set alight, along with a company
warehouse.
-- ST
