Activists blast attacks against athnic Chinese

Activists blast attacks against athnic Chinese

LOS ANGELES (AP): Hundreds of activists protesting attacks on ethnic Chinese in Indonesia this year packed sidewalks and streets Friday outside the Indonesian consulate in Los Angeles.

Police blocked Wilshire Boulevard outside the consulate and monitored the estimated 500-person crowd, but reported no arrests or problems, said Officer Mike Partain.

Fifty to 75 officers were called to the scene where protesters chanted "stop the violence" and carried signs.

Fuliang Xiao, president of the Chinese Student and Scholar's Association at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he and event organizer Daniel Gu were allowed inside to meet with the consul general for about 20 minutes.

The consul general agreed to forward a letter detailing the protesters' concerns to the president of Indonesia, Xiao said. The consul general agreed to immediately deliver the letter, but was unsure when the protesters might get an answer, Xiao said.

Phone calls by The Associated Press to the consulate went unanswered. The protesters want President B.J. Habibie to condemn Indonesian rioters accused of raping an estimated 168 ethnic Chinese women and girls during bloody May riots in Jakarta and other cities.

Similar protests were scheduled in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Toronto and Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, nearly 40 US lawmakers urged President Bill Clinton Friday to press President Habibie on the plight of that nation's ethnic Chinese minority, Antara reported.

"We urge you to make central to your administration's policy toward Indonesia the need for effective action by the Indonesian government to end all official discrimination against ethnic Chinese," Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and 37 other lawmakers said in a letter to Clinton.

Numerous reports have circulated about the failure of Indonesia's military to protect the Chinese minority during that country's political rioting and unrest in mid-May.

Of specific concern to the lawmakers are reports that 168 ethnic Chinese women and girls were raped in Jakarta and other cities during the May 13-15 riots.

The rapes were merely a "broader pattern of political violence targeted against ethnic Chinese," said the lawmakers.