Govt's latest denial of mid-May rapes lambasted

JAKARTA (JP): Repeated government denials that scores of women were raped during the mid-May riots, the latest coming from Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto on Sunday, have again come under fire.

The chairman of a government-sponsored fact-finding team investigating the riots, Marzuki Darusman, on Monday slammed the latest denial as "premature".

It was also a "shock", he said, given an earlier consensus that officials would no longer issue such statements ahead of the team's Oct. 23 report deadline.

He said the denial may have been made because the Armed Forces' (ABRI) leadership might have felt frustrated for failing to successfully reach out to victims -- mostly Chinese- Indonesians -- to verify reported cases. But this should not have led them to conclude that no rapes had taken place, he argued.

"And this must be made clear to both the international and the Indonesian communities, that ABRI's latest statement over the rapes has been a premature one and that such a statement could raise questions that could cause trouble for all of us," he told The Jakarta Post before a meeting at the House of Representatives.

Marzuki was asked to comment on Wiranto's statement during a news conference on ABRI's 53rd anniversary.

Wiranto had said: "The government and ABRI have made various efforts to find the victims of the rapes reported to have taken place during the May 13 to May 15 unrest."

"These efforts have not yielded results. ABRI has also not obtained concrete and convincing replies, data or proof from parties that have claimed to possess important information," he added.

Wiranto had made a similar statement in September along with other senior officials, including the national police chief and the head of the state intelligence agency, to the protest of human rights groups.

Marzuki reiterated that a preliminary report, including data on the rape cases, had been given to ABRI two weeks ago. There was a consensus that sexual violence had occurred during the May riots, he said, and that the government would no longer issue denials.

When asked at the time about his earlier statements that the military had not found any evidence to support the rape claims, Wiranto had said "wait for the investigation".

ABRI members of the fact-finding team include Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Syamsu Djalal, police detective chief Maj. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and Maj. Gen. Marwan Paris from National Police Headquarters. Marzuki said "operational coordination" with all of ABRI's members in the team and "ABRI units in the field" was "going on well without problems".

"So we're shocked (with ABRI's latest statement), because there has been some sort of 'dualism' within ABRI itself, between its leaders and its members in the (team)," he said.

"We agreed on the preliminary evidence. What's the point of ABRI's leaders making a statement that only confuses the public?

"I want to emphasize again that the rapes did occur. Now we are investigating their magnitude."

Marzuki said further that ABRI's denial on the very date of its important anniversary could have meant that it and the government had announced a "final policy statement" concerning the issue.

"And we (the team) are very unhappy about that," Marzuki said.

Activists have reported that 168 women were gang-raped or otherwise sexually assaulted during the mass violence here and in several other cities in May. As many as 20 women and young girls either died from their injuries, were murdered by their assailants or had committed suicide. (aan)