Hundreds of Sakai residents arrested after seizing Caltex cars

Over a hundred of Sakai residents in Mandau of the Bengkalis regency, Riau have been arrested following their action to seize trucks and other vehicles owned by Caltex Pacific Indonesia and its contractors, Suara Karya reported on Friday.

The witnesses said that the arrest was made on Thursday after the Sakai residents refused to surrender the vehicles. Some of the protesters carried knives and other sharpened weapons.

The young people seized a number cars mostly owned by Caltex and its contractors as a protest to the reluctance of the oil related companies in the regency to hire the locals. They said they would not give up until the companies provided them with jobs.

The local leader of the Sakai tribe, an ingenious ethnic group in Riau, M. Yatim denied that the protest was made by the Sakai youth.

"The Sakai men will not carry out such anarchy," he said, adding that the protesters only used Sakai name to damage the image of the ethnic group. (*)