Rare Riot Hits Singapore; Fatal Road Accident Angers Foreign Workers; Little India was “like a war zone”: TNP photojournalist

Rare Riot Hits Singapore

Fatal Road Accident Angers Foreign Workers

CHUN HAN WONG and ESTHER FUNG

Updated Dec. 8, 2013 6:22 p.m. ET

SINGAPORE—A crowd of about 400 foreign workers, angered by a fatal road accident, set fire to vehicles and attacked police and emergency services workers late Sunday in Singapore’s ethnic Indian district, injuring at least 18 people in a rare riot in the city-state.Police and eyewitnesses say the riot, the first major outburst of public violence here in more than four decades, started at about 9:23 p.m. local time (1323 GMT) after a bus hit and killed an unnamed 33-year-old Indian man in the Little India neighborhood, prompting large groups of South Asian workers to attack the bus with sticks and garbage bins.

Authorities quelled the violence before 11 p.m. after deploying 300 police officers to the scene, including its riot-control squad and Gurkha unit, police officials said in a news briefing early Monday, adding that officers didn’t use any firearms to end the riot.

Police arrested 27 people, all of South Asian origin, who weren’t named and couldn’t be contacted. It wasn’t clear if the arrested people have received legal representation. No Singaporeans were known to be involved in the violence, which didn’t appear to be preplanned, officials said, adding that further arrests may be made in the coming days as investigations continue into the riot and the accident that sparked it.

In an early Monday statement on his Facebook page, Singapore Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong described the riot as “a very grave incident,” and said police will “spare no effort to identify the culprits and deal with them with the full force of the law.”

Little India, located in central Singapore, is a popular weekend hangout for expatriates and migrant workers from South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Crowds typically gather there in the thousands on Sunday evenings.

The riot has sparked concerns of festering unrest amid the large foreign workforce, numbering about 1.3 million as of June, in this island state of 5.3 million people. In recent years, some foreign laborers—particularly low-pay unskilled workers in construction—have resorted to protests against alleged exploitation by employers, including a rare and illegal strike last year by about 170 public-bus drivers hired from China.

“It’s an awakening to the government. They want to bring in foreign talent but there are consequences,” said Michael Singh, a driver whose private bus was damaged by rioters, who threw stones and smashed the vehicle’s windshield and glass door. “It’s only a matter of time before things get out of control,” he said.

Officials sought to allay such worries in the immediate aftermath of the riot. “By and large, the relationships [between migrant workers and Singaporeans] are good,” Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean said in a news briefing early Monday. “We welcome guest workers here who are law-abiding and who want to make a living for themselves.”

Even so, police would “pay extra attention not just to Little India, but also to foreign-worker dormitories and known places of congregation, moving forward,” Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee said at the briefing.

Police officials said they were treating the incident as a case of “rioting with dangerous weapons,” an offense that carries penalties including up to 10 years’ jail, as well as caning.

Video footage aired on social media and local television showed rioters turning police cars onto their sides and setting vehicles on fire. At least 18 people were sent to hospital, Singapore’s Civil Defense Force said, adding that four of its first responders were among the injured. Police officials said 10 officers were hurt, none seriously, while the bus driver—a Singaporean—was hospitalized.

Five vehicles were burned—including three police vehicles, an ambulance and a motorcycle, the Civil Defense Force said. Several other vehicles—including police, civil defense, and privately owned cars—also were damaged, officials said.

Wall Street Journal reporters at the scene saw dozens of police officers, wearing Kevlar helmets and carrying riot shields, cordoning off the area late Sunday. At least two police cars were turned on their sides, and smoke rose from burned-out vehicles along the road where the riot took place.

Residents in Little India said occasional fights have broken out between foreign workers who gather there, but large-scale violence is unheard of. “There has been nothing of this magnitude [before],” said Alfred Tan, who lives in a state-built apartment block in the district. “When this happens, it worries us, what would happen next?”

Many shopkeepers in the area shut their businesses once the violence broke out. One of them, a 73-year-old retired policeman who runs a medicine store, who only gave his name as Raja, said Sunday’s incident reminded him of racial riots that plagued Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.

Singapore last experienced a major riot in 1969, when racially charged violence broke out for seven days between the city-state’s majority ethnic Chinese and minority Malay residents, leaving at least four dead and 80 injured.

Little India was “like a war zone”: TNP photojournalist

Monday, December 9, 2013 – 22:29

RazorTv

Speaking to RazorTV, The New Paper journalist Zaihan Mohamed Yusof said, “On Sunday night, a call came in at about 10pm.

“The guy on the other end said that he had a tip off to tell us, that there was a riot in Little India. It seemed like a hoax, because he seemed more interested in finding out if he could get a prize for telling us this.

“So I didn’t take it seriously, but two minutes later he must have called again saying, ‘Are you on the way here? There’s one man dead.’

“When I heard that, I thought that this was serious stuff. I informed the News Editor and he said ‘let’s go’.

“Within 10 minutes I went to the photo room and contacted [photojournalist] Jonathan, and we were on our way to Little India. We arrived there at about 10.45pm and along the way there were indications that this was the real thing.

“There were police cars and motorbikes speeding to that location. We found ourselves at Hampshire Road and we knew we were at the right place because of the fire ball that I could see about 50 metres away from where the car was.

“We were then stuck in a jam and we decided that Jonathan should go out and scout around.”

Picking up from where Zaihan had left off, photojournalist Jonathan Choo, told RazorTV that the first thing he saw was the ball of fire and a whole row of cars.

He said that he found it strange as there was no-one around to put it out, but as he looked around he saw the riot police in full gear.

He then tried to find the police cordon, but there wasn’t any as well. He then thought that the riot was over and went forward.

However, just as he did, “I saw a whole group of people rushing off. So I thought that the action is still on and I moved towards them.

“When I reached there I realised that there was the hotspot, and I started shooting.

“After a few shots, one of them spotted me and started shouting at me. Then the rest turned towards me and the nearest person to me, who was holding a rock, grabbed my camera strap.

“When I realised that whole group was starting to react, and I knew I already had the pictures, I knew I had to run for my life. I quickly pulled the camera away from the guy and ran.

“I started to hear ‘pok, pok’ sounds around me. When I on the ground, I realised that they throwing rocks at me.”

Zaihan than continued the story, saying, “Because 20 minutes later, I stood about 50 to 60 metres away from where Jonathan was, watching from what I thought was safe location.

“I’m not sure if the person beside was an AETOS officer or a police officer, and he told me ‘it’s okay, this place is safe, it’s too far’.

“So I was looking around trying to get some shots, and suddenly there was that eerie sound of glass breaking and rocks dropping just in front of you.

“Next thing you know, both of us evacuated to the rear where it was much safer.

“When you walk, you were trampling on broken shards (of glass).”

“It’s like a walking in war zone, basically,” quipped Jonathan.

Continuing his harrowing tale, Zaihan said, “Later after interviewing one gentleman, he told me that he had learnt that the cause of anger may have been due to the accident, an accident where a man had died.

“There were shouts from the mob asking who is going to be responsible for this man’s life. Who is going to be responsible for him and who is going to answer to his family?

“So that is what he gathered from the shouts.”

Recalling a particularly scary moment, Zaihan explained how a coffeeshop owner saved him.

“I was near Chander Road, I think, just behind Race Course Road” continued Zaihan.

“I was trying to look for people who had seen what had happened. And all of a sudden I heard shouts coming from my right or from my back, and when I turned it looked like a wall of people coming towards me.

“Imagine a Spanish bull run. Of course, I panicked, luckily this aunty and uncle opened their coffeeshop gate and said, ‘Come in, come in’, and pulled me in, closed the gate and locked it.

“And basically the moment they put on the padlock, a lot of people had ran over screaming. And I had to calm myself down by sitting down for awhile.

“But I couldn’t stay in there for too long, because I had to find people and talk to them.”

Referring to Jonathan, he said, “We didn’t speak to each other for about an hour. He didn’t answer my calls because he was also busy.”

Jonathan explained that he too was hiding in a shop, but it was closer to the end of the riot scene.

He said, “I took a lot of shots of people being arrested. ”

Explaining the separation from his partner, Zaihan maintained he was worried about Jonathan because they have similar experiences overseas in places like Fiji.

However, he would have appreciated a text message from Jonathan assuring him that he was indeed safe.

Finally, when they met an hour later, Zaihan said that his car was trapped in a stand-off between the police and a handful of the rioters.

He added, “It was madness. It is something you do not see in Singapore.”

Jonathan also said, “It was like a war zone. You wouldn’t believe that it was in Singapore.