From owner-berita@LISTSERV.RNW.NL Wed Jun 17 00:38:43 1998

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:50:06 +0100

From: RNW berita list manager <owner-berita@LISTSERV.RNW.NL>

Reply-To: berita-request@RNW.NL

To: BERITA@RNW.NL

Subject: Warta Berita - Radio Nederland, 16 June 1998

* CHINESE WOMEN RAPED DURING RIOTS IN JAKARTA

This is a translation of an interview the Indonesian Department of Radio

Netherlands conducted with Ita Nadia, one of the workers at the women

sector within the Voluntary Team which deals with the aftermath of the

recent riots in Jakarta. Ita Nadia is also the Director of Kalyana

Mitra, an all-women NGO. The interview was conducted in the Indonesian

language on June 8, 1998. It was broadcast in Gema Warta and Fokus Awal

Pekan the following day, June 9th.

RN: How many victims have contacted your group so far?

IN: It is extremely difficult to quantify the number of victims who

reported their cases, first of all because they are deeply traumatized

and also because, as women, they face other obstacles, such as being

Chinese and non-Muslim (in a largely Muslim environment). If we wait

until they come to us then it's not going to work. So we use a pro-

active approach. We try to find them. We open a telephone hotline. We

also try and recruit volunteers. At the moment we provide the victims

with medical and psychological help, in order to make them strong enough

so that they can present their case in court. According to our records

(as of June 8) there are between 25 and 50 cases to be dealt with.

We assist the victims intensively. The women of ethnic Chinese origin

tend to be very reluctant to talk, traumatized as they are. We have

visited hospitals and noted that many victims have suffered mental

breakdowns. That means there is nothing we can do for them at present.

The type of victim varies from women who were assaulted in the street to

those who were raped in their own homes. In some instances, women were

raped and then killed. In others, the rape victims and their families

committed suicide.

RN: Are there many victims who make use of your telephone hotline?

IN: Hotlines have been opened in two places. One is in the office of

Kalyana Mitra, the other at Mitra Perempuan; both are all-women NGO's.

We receive an average of 25 calls a day, mostly from informants. About

three to five victims a day call our hotlines. Usually they don't want

to identify themselves, most are hysterical and crying. We tend to get

their addresses from informants, relatives or neighbours, not from the

victims themselves. They range in age from ten to fifty. We believe the

abuse to be barbaric, systematic and organized, since most of the

perpetrators were not from the area, but came from elsewhere, in groups.

RN: Are the victims exclusively from the ethnic Chinese community?

IN: The majority, about 98 percent, are ethnic Chinese. We know of one

or two cases involving women from other ethnic groups but these have not

yet been confirmed. All of the victims we have dealt with were Chinese.

RN: How would you build a court case; wouldn't it be almost impossible

to identify individuals as the perpetrators?

IN: Well, it is difficult to pinpoint individual rapists, because the

incidents involved groups of between five and nine men. Our target is

the government, because we think this is the government's

responsibility. The acts were well-planned and carried out as a military

operation. The men would come to a certain place, loot shops en then

rape the women -something which is very common in military situations.

Our targets are not the guilty individuals, since it is difficult to

produce evidence, but we want to raise the awareness and solidarity of

the public. Society itself will have to militate against this kind of

injustice.

RN: Do you have any idea who committed these acts?

IN: All we know is that they operated in groups of five or more. They

were not local people and the incidents were cases of multiple rape, in

which one woman was usually abused by up to five men. The rapes took

place in the street and in people's homes.

RN: Could you give a rundown of cases that have been documented?

IN: There were employees going home by public transport. On the bus, the

passengers were separated along ethnic lines. The Chinese were told to

get off, take off their clothes and walk. They were herded towards the

bushes lining the road. The good-looking ones were raped, those who were

less pretty were told to march on without any clothes on. In another

incident, a group of Chinese women were stripped naked and harrassed. We

met some women who had bruises all over their bodies, their nipples had

been torn. There was a case where a group of ten people entered a bank

and sealed off the door. Inside, the Chinese women employees were made

to dance without any clothes on. Then there was the poor Chinese family

whose three daughters, aged 10 to 18, were raped by seven men. Yet

another case involves a Chinese family whose eldest daughter told me

what happened to her two younger sisters. They, too, were raped by seven

men, on the third floor of their house. Afterwards, their attackers

chased them down to the second floor, which was already in flames. Both

girls died. There've been other cases where women were not only raped,

but strangled as well. Also, there were cases where, after being raped,

the victims and their families ended up killing themselves. These were

cases where the women were not only raped, but also sodomized and had

their vaginas ripped apart. These assaults were carried out

systematically, not by any single individual.

I would say that there is a political message in all this: if you want

reforms and democracy then this is the price you have to pay. They want

to create a state of terror, in order to intimidate people, so they pick

on ethnic Chinese, on women and non-Muslims because they are the most

vulnerable. We are extremely angry that women are being targeted and

subjected to sexual violence as a means to intimidate people. This is

state-sponsored violence.

RN: What would you say to victims who are still afraid to explain what

happened to them?

IN: I would say 'please don't be afraid, because breaking your silence

will help raise awareness'. They can call our hotlines on 021-7902109 or

021-79021121. We guarantee complete confidentiality. To the outside

world I say: please give us your support. Support means campaigning

against this barbarism and condemning it. Ethnic Chinese were already

the target of political discrimination by the government. Now they are

being victimized.

RN: Do you think these cases have received enough attention from the

government and the media?

IN: This is an act of discrimination that has built up for more than 30

years. Rape is a criminal act, but the matter has gone beyond mere

crime. It is a social outrage. We want to show that this is a crime

beyond comprehension. As for the media, we insist that this is also

their responsibility. Right now we are still concentrating on the

victims, standing by them and trying to restore their confidence. This

is a duty that involves not just looking after women but also raising

awareness. I am glad to say that we are getting very positive reactions

from all layers of society, both from indigenous Indonesians and ethnic

Chinese who support our work.

We have been threatened ourselves, they've even sent us grenades. One

grenade came with a message attached: 'there will be more grenades to

come'. But I say: we're doing this not to gain political power, we're

doing this for the victims, for those who have died. Our motivation

comes from the heart. When I came to this I was deeply shocked and

couldn't believe what I heard and saw. Our group, Kalyana Mitra, has

been dealing with rape cases for ten years but we've never encountered

anything quite as barbaric as this. The victims ask for protection

because they fear reprisals if the details of their cases are revealed.

We are now helping the victims to take HIV tests. If they've become

pregnant they will need an abortion. They will also need psychological

care.

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