The group of demonstrators who protested outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta yesterday is suspected to have links with Indonesian military forces and armed groups involved in the East Timor massacre three years ago.

Yesterday, some 40 persons claiming to represent radical nationalist group Laskar Merah Putih burned a Malaysian flag and pulled down the main gates of the Malaysian mission in Jakarta.

A protest letter was later handed to an embassy official, urging that Malaysia stops its "inhumane" caning and fining of illegal workers.

The incident prompted Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar to advise Malaysians against traveling to Indonesia unless it is necessary, until anti-Malaysian sentiment in the republic "cools down".