Five former comfort women to sue Inten

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Five former jugun ianfus, women forced into serving the sexual needs of Japanese troops during World War II, threatened Friday to sue Minister of Social Services Endang Kusuma Inten Soeweno over a compensation fund dispute.

According to their lawyer from the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Yogyakarta, Budi Hartono, the minister's decision not to pay the Rp 9 billion (US$2.53 million) compensation from Japan directly to the former comfort women, but to build homes for the elderly, was a serious violation of human rights.

"They were humiliated during the war and now the government does not recognize their existence," Budi said at the launching of a book on the "comfort women" here Friday.

The book, titled Derita Paksa Perempuan (The Suffering of Forced Women) was jointly published by PT Sinar Harapan, The Ford Foundation and Lapera Indonesia Foundation.

The book was cowritten by Budi and former comfort woman Mardiyem.

In the then Japanese-occupied Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia, there were about 200,000 imprisoned comfort women. In Yogyakarta and Central Java, the number was at least 200.

"The minister's statement, that it was difficult for her office to trace the whereabouts of the women, is totally baseless, because we have sent her a list of 287 former jugun ianfus," Budi remarked.

Budi had earlier said that many of the women had reached old age and did not care anymore about their fate. Some of them are still healthy but carry the stigma of being former comfort women.

He insisted that the fund should be given to the women, the real victims of the Japanese troops' brutality.

The Ministry of Social Services announced in 1993 that a search was being launched for Indonesian women forced into sex slavery during World War II. With the help of LBH their data were collected.

LBH and the women demanded an official apology from the Japanese government and compensation for their sufferings as comfort women.

"The government must ask the Japanese government to apologize directly to the victims and then talk about compensation," Budi insisted.

The Rp 9 billion fund was channeled to the Indonesian government sometime ago through a private institution, the Asian Women's Fund.

Budi said in March that the institute had been specially established to free the Japanese government of direct responsibility for former comfort women.

"The government must not pretend not to know about the problem ... the minister must take concrete steps to restore the women's dignity," Budi said. (23/prb)