Police directed traffic nearby but did nothing to intervene. In other towns around the troubled state, crowds picked through wreckage and stole merchandise from shops abandoned by their frightened owners. Four percent of Indonesia's mainly Muslim population of 202 million, is made up of ethnic Chinese. A fraction of these Chinese are among Indonesia's richest people. However, small-town merchants complain that they're being made scapegoats for economic troubles.
People get angry.
They are frustrated because they don't have food in their stomachs. They need a channel for their anger, so they attack the Chinese in their town. Since the rupiah collapsed in July, the security forces have been on alert for the expected violence. Rioting first flared on the eastern side of Java about a month ago and then has moved west toward Jakarta as pain from the economic crisis deepens. Troops armed with shields and rifles patrolled other riot-torn towns on Java on Sunday.