Harassment stalks people working with rape victims<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Volunteers working with victims of rape,
\nespecially from the May riots, say they are still facing terror
\ntargeted at them and their families.<\/p>\n
Sandyawan Sumardi and Karlina Leksono-Supelli of the
\nVolunteers for Humanity revealed here on Thursday that
\ntargets have included gynecologists.<\/p>\n
Sandyawan, a priest who runs the Jakarta Social Institute
\nworking for the urban poor, cited how a doctor who had just
\ntestified before the government-sponsored Joint Fact-Finding Team
\n(TGPF) received a call telling him to \"stop meddling\".<\/p>\n
The caller told the doctor that \"they\" knew where his
\ndaughters' school was and that they would be raped unless he
\nstopped testifying.<\/p>\n
\"The doctor then said he had to give up, which we understood
\nand respected,\" Sandyawan said in a discussion at The Jakarta
\nPost. Karlina said one of the callers she answered said: \"So you
\nguys still want to continue (investigating the rape cases).
\nAren't you afraid of being raped?\"<\/p>\n
Karlina said the terror began soon after the \"breaking of the
\nsilence\" on the rapes during the May riots. In July the
\nVolunteers for Humanity reported to the National Commission on
\nHuman Rights that they had received 168 reports of rape, 152 of
\nthem in Jakarta and the rest in other cities including Surakarta
\nand Surabaya, in Central and East Java respectively.<\/p>\n
\"The gap between the demands for evidence\" and the condition
\nof traumatized victims, and also continued terror and denials,
\nKarlina said, has been a major hindrance in the progress to
\nsolving the crimes. \"A victim who had agreed to a medical check-
\nup changed her mind in the doctor's room,\" she said.<\/p>\n
The only victim who \"courageously\" appeared in a closed
\nsession last month at a United Nations sub-commission with
\nKarlina and Sandyawan did not return home given the terror
\ntargeted at her family's home, Karlina said.<\/p>\n
In a dialog on rapes last month, psychiatrist Dadang Hawari
\nhad demanded that the government guarantee the safety of both
\nvictims and volunteers.<\/p>\n
Karlina said precisely because rapes were difficult to prove
\nthere had been efforts to silence victims, volunteers and their
\nfamilies.<\/p>\n
Apart from terror, there were repeated denials by government
\nofficials of the rapes, Karlina said, despite President B.J.
\nHabibie's condemnation of the violence in June.<\/p>\n
The New York-based Human Rights Watch recently urged the
\ngovernment to stop discrediting reports of the rapes, which would
\nmake investigations even harder. The government-sponsored Joint
\nFact-Finding Team is still investigating the May riots, including
\nthe reported rapes.<\/p>\n
Karlina said the terror against volunteers and also families
\nof rape victims reflected a \"strong force\" that wanted the cases
\nto remain unsolved. \"Society must show that it is able to fight
\n(such intimidation),\" Karlina said.<\/p>\n
Karlina is a founder of the Suara Ibu Peduli (Concerned
\nMothers' Voice) group. With other members she has protested the
\nrocketing price of basic needs in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Sandyawan and Karlina said the violence against women in the
\nMay riots should be seen as inseparable from similar reports of
\nmass rapes in areas like Aceh, in the north of Sumatra and East
\nTimor.<\/p>\n
\"The real issues of state violence\", Sandyawan said, should
\nnot be diverted to treating the rapes as individual crimes.<\/p>\n
\"It's not simply a matter of arresting people and punishing
\nthem. We have to solve the whole systemic issue of state violence
\nto end it,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sandyawan also said that the reported rape cases \"should not
\nbe separated from the May riots.\" Both inside and outside the
\ncountry, he said, \"it is as if the victims of the riots,
\nincluding those burnt in malls, are not interesting to talk
\nabout, also because they were labeled as looters.\"<\/p>\n
As many as 1,200 deaths were reported during the riots, with
\nmany of the victims dying in blazing malls in Jakarta and
\nTangerang, West Java. Many could not be identified and were
\nburied in mass graves.<\/p>\n
Reports that the victims of the rapes were mostly Chinese-
\nIndonesians have heightened speculation that the reports are
\naimed to discredit Moslems. But Sandyawan pointed out that many
\nof the victims in the burned malls were not Chinese-Indonesians.
\n(aan\/anr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/harassment-stalks-people-working-with-rape-victims-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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