May riot rape victims scared into silence: UN<\/p>\n
GENEVA (AFP): Chinese-Indonesian women raped during last
\nyear's disturbances in Indonesia have been threatened in order to
\nshut them up, a United Nations investigator reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Radhika Coomaraswamy, special rapporteur to the UN human
\nrights commission, said she was convinced despite police denials
\nthat there were mass rapes including gang rapes during the riots.<\/p>\n
The army had only rarely intervened against violence towards
\nthe Chinese minority, she said.<\/p>\n
None of the victims of sexual assault including 52 rape cases,
\nwith whom the special rapporteur spoke during an investigation in
\nIndonesia, had filed charges, she said in her report on violence
\nagainst women submitted Wednesday to the UN human rights panel's
\nannual session here.<\/p>\n
The victims had received death threats and anonymous letters
\nwarning them against filing charges. They had also received
\nphotographs of their own rapes, accompanied by a warning that the
\npictures would be widely distributed if the women dared to speak
\nup, Coomaraswamy added.<\/p>\n
She called on the authorities at the highest level in
\nIndonesia to introduce a witness protection program, and have
\nthose who had allegedly issued the threats brought to book.<\/p>\n
"Otherwise the legitimate process of politics and governance
\nwill always be subverted by shadowy forces who rule civil society
\nthrough the use of terror," Coomaraswamy insisted.<\/p>\n
She described how certain officials in Indonesia had made
\nlight of the threatening letters even although 17-year-old Ita
\nMartadinata, daughter of a women's rights activist, had been
\nmurdered at her Jakarta home after receiving death threats and
\nanonymous letters.<\/p>\n
The rapporteur said she had been unable to establish exactly
\nhow many women had been raped during the violence in Indonesia
\nwhich culminated in the resignation of president Suharto.<\/p>\n
"The Chinese community appears to be terrorized by the
\nevents," she added.<\/p>\n
According to the non-governmental organization Volunteers for
\nHumanitarian Causes, 1,190 were killed in Jakarta and 168 women
\nwere the victims of gang rapes.<\/p>\n
The government-appointed Joint Fact-finding Team reported last
\nNovember that 76 were sexually assaulted, most of them Chinese-
\nIndonesians.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/may-riot-rape-victims-scared-into-silence-un-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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