Dead Chinese were robbed

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

An Indonesian newspaper, The Jakarta Post, reported that gangs of grave
robbers, armed with knives, crowbars and sickles, have been digging up 
Chinese graves in the cities of Pekalongan and Solo in the island of 
Java. In daylight, they broke open the coffins and looted the jewellery 
and other valuables and they even took away the marble headstones and the 
thick-teak coffins. Accordance to the Chinese tradition the deads were 
buried with valuables.

The cemetry officials said that 268 graves were dug up in these two cities.
The police confirmed the desecration and had made a couple of arrests, 
but the grave looters continued.
 
The Chinese communities in these two cities could do nothing except 
report the cases to the police.   

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Accordance to the Hakka tradition the vendetta of digging up and 
scattering of buried ancestors is considered a descration worse than 
the extermination of the living.

Yoon-Ngan.