Malaysia has not frozen the recruitment of Indonesian workers but priority will now be given to other foreign nationals, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

"They will be the last choice. But we can still consider recruiting them if there is a need for them. This includes the maids," explained the premier.

Mahathir said the government is concerned because the Indonesian workers are now getting involved in serious crimes, including rioting, and the authorities could not tolerate them anymore

The prime minister was speaking at a press conference after chairing an Umno supreme council meeting at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesian workers incurred the government's wrath following a riot by some 400 workers at a textile factory in Negeri Sembilan on Jan 17.

Police vehicles were overturned and officers were pelted with stones when they tried to detain16 Indonesian workers during an anti-narcotics operation.

A total of 125 Indonesian workers were arrested in connection with the riot. Ninety-one were deported yesterday and this morning while the rest are expected to be shipped home soon.

Following this, on Jan 20, some 70 Indonesian workers armed with machetes, destroyed food stalls operated by other foreign workers in Cyberjaya.

'Clean-up operation'

Asked whether the government will launch a "clean-up operation" around Kuala Lumpur, especially in the Chow Kit area, to round up immigrants, Mahathir replied:"We will do that but it is our hawkers themselves who sold their licences and the (trading) lots to foreigners.

How could they (Indonesians) get there in the first place. They did not take it by force, but the locals sold it to them."

On the allegation by a Jakarta-based lobby group that the riot was a result of police mistreatment, Mahathir said they should not have made such accusations because "what happens over there is worse".

"There is actually a group of people there (Indonesia) who are not happy with the existing good relationship between the two countries," he said.

Malaysiakini quoted the lobby group known as the Consortium for the Defence of Indonesian Migrant Workers (Kopbumi) in a report today that most of the workers deported from Malaysia complained of mistreatment.

"It is the accumulation of these sufferings that had caused Indonesian workers to resent the police and had them openly fighting the police," said the group.

Mahathir said the Umno supreme council has also supported the government's decision not to bring in large numbers of Indonesians into the country.

KMM evidence

Meanwhile, on the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), Mahathir said the authorities have evidence to link them to the international terrorists.

He said the KMM has resorted to using force to topple the government "because they don't believe in a democratic means to achieve their struggle".

"We have traced a large number of them. They are now under detention and we are still investigating their activities," he added.

Mahathir said they will be charged in court when the authorities have gathered enough evidence to do so.

To date, 28 KMM members have been detained under the Internal Security Act, including the son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

The premier had said previously that the KMM were trained by the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terror network helmed by Osama bin Laden.

Mahathir also said that Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar has been asked to send a letter of protest to the United States government regarding the reported torturing of Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners held at a US base in Cuba.