Gangs of grave robbers desecrate Chinese tombs in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Aug 21 (AFP) - Gangs of grave robbers have been digging up
Chinese graveyards in two cities on the Indonesian island of Java and
looting them of coffins of valuables and discarding the remains,
officials and a press report said Friday.
The Jakarta Post reported that weeping relatives and graveyard
guardians were powerless to stop the gangs, armed with knives and
sickles, in the cities of Pekalongan and Surakarta.
"It is true, but we can't say how many," Sergeant Fitri, an adjutant to
Pekalongan police chief Colonel Ismu Haryono told AFP by phone.
Fitri said no arrests had been made.
The Post quoted cemetery officials as saying that they had counted 268
graves dug up in the two cities by the looters, who arrived in groups of
10 armed with saws, crowbars and digging tools at all times of day and
night.
They broke open the coffins, took whatever jewellery and valuables they
found buried -- according to Chinese tradition -- with the dead, and often
also made off with the coffins that are usually made of thick valuable
wood, the Post said.
The robbers usually come and leave with their loots on the backs of
trucks and left the remains scattered on the ground, the daily said.
"In one incident the thieves failed to open the teak casket, so they
just threw it on their truck," Surakarta cemetery guard Sastro told the
Post.
Relatives visiting the looted graves of their ancestors over the past
month broke down in shock, seeing the remains scattered and the tombs
desecrated, it said.
Over the past month Chinese throughout Asia have been protesting at
Indonesian embassies over the brutal treatment meted out to the country's
ethnic-Chinese minority during the May riots that preceded the fall of
former president Suharto.