TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Videos surfaced over the weekend after a deadly riot broke out at a Chinese-run Belt and Road Initiative project in Indonesia on Saturday (Jan. 14).
That day, Indonesian workers staged a one-day strike to protest the working conditions and pay at a plant run on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island run by PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI), a local unit of China’s Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry. During the protest, which started around 10 a.m., Indonesian workers and numerous Chinese workers brought into the country by the firm violently clashed with each other inside the factory, according to China Labor Watch.
The workers also clashed with security officers who were dispatched to the scene by the company. By evening, Indonesian workers set fire to their dormitories, heavy machinery, and company vehicles.
Central Sulawesi police spokesman Didik Supranoto was cited by AFP as saying that at least 71 people were arrested, including 17 who were suspected of causing damage. According to Supranoto, a 30-year-old Chinese employee and an Indonesian worker were killed during the riot.
The industrial park, which was developed by China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Co. to produce ferronickel and stainless steel, was inaugurated by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in 2021. According to the Environmental Justice Atlas, the industrial park has "faced some social, environmental, and labor complaints and violent protest," and the first and second stages of the project have been absorbed into the China-Indonesia "Belt and Road Initiative."
Belt and Road Initiative project in Indonesia, causing at least one Chinese worker’s death and two deaths of Indonesian workers, and leaving many more injured.situation got out of control to the point where Indonesian workers set fire to workers' dormitories and company vehicles. pic.twitter.com/mTGcDAnrzI
— China Labor Watch (@chinalaborwatch) January 15, 2023
一带一路德龙印尼工人火烧宿舍现场 pic.twitter.com/0PQuz9CW5X
— China Labor Watch (@chinalaborwatch) January 16, 2023
On Jan 14, a strike by Indonesian workers demanding better pay and working conditions at the ferronickel plant of Jiangsu Delong Nickel’s Indonesian subsidiary PT GNI — a key 〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕 Belt & Road project — turned into a violent clash between local workers and Chinese personnel. pic.twitter.com/JGpCibMlbR
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) January 16, 2023
