Grave looting turns rampant in areas of Central Java

Grave looting turns rampant in areas of Central Java

By Haryoso

SEMARANG (JP): In Central Java, the spirits of many wealthy
Chinese-Indonesians who died more than 20 years ago have been
rudely disturbed because they, too, have had to bear the brunt of
the present crisis.

Over the past month, suspicious-looking strangers have dug up
Chinese graves and stolen the valuables in Pekalongan and
Surakarta.

Eyewitnesses say the criminals usually came in groups of at
least 10 people. Armed with sickles, crowbars, saws and hoes, the
looters arrived in trucks at all times of day without fear of
being apprehended.

They targeted graves of people who died at least 20 years ago.
Many relatives of the deceased were devastated on finding the
remains of their loved ones had been left scattered around the
grave site.

Officials in charge of cemeteries have counted 268 Chinese-
Indonesian graves dug up and looted in the batik town of
Pekalongan and another 15 in the ancient sultanate of Surakarta.

"The looters would carefully remove the marble gravestone.
Then they would take out and open the casket where the deceased's
valuables such as gold are usually kept," says Subagio, 40, who
resides in Kuripan cemetery in Pekalongan.

In many cases, especially in Surakarta, thieves also got away
with the expensive marble tombstones and the coffins made of top-
quality teak. Such caskets usually measure 2.5 meters long and up
to 12 centimeters thick.

Local residents reported that the looters were all strangers
to them. They described the thieves as well-built, fiery-looking
and armed with sharp weapons.

"With daggers, sickles and army knives, they looked
threatening. We villagers were afraid of reprisals if we tried to
stop them," said Suparno, 36, also from Kuripan, Pekalongan.

Villagers who had the guts to go close enough to the crime
scenes said they saw looters collect gold and diamond-encrusted
jewelry. In one grave gold-plated glasses frames were picked up.

"In one incident, the thieves failed to open the teak casket,"
Suparno said. "So they just threw it onto their truck."

Pekalongan Police chief Lt. Col. Ismu Haryomo has expressed
disgust over the widespread grave looting.

"I can't stop wondering how people have the heart to loot
graves in this supposedly civilized society," he said.

In Surakarta, all 15 cases of grave looting occurred in the
Jebres Chinese cemetery, where caskets and valuables inside it
were stolen. The skeletal remains were casually reburied.

"The looting occurred a month ago. The torch-wielding mob came
on trucks and dug up the graves at night," said M. Sastro, who
guards the cemetery.

Surakarta, along with Jakarta, Medan and Palembang, was badly
hit by anti-Chinese riots in mid-May, in which hundreds of shops,
banks and vehicles were destroyed. Chinese-Indonesians in the
ancient city are still reportedly experiencing harassment.

Under Chinese tradition, dead people are buried with their
favorite belongings. It is considered taboo for the living
relatives to keep the items.

Until about 20 years ago, the casket would be made of
expensive teak. Nowadays, coffins are mostly made of less
valuable materials for practical reasons, especially if the body
is to be cremated.

Suwardi, the 40-year-old Jebres cemetery keeper, said almost
all of the looted graves were those that contained the remains of
people who died more than 30 years ago.

He recalled a day when a group of Chinese-Indonesians from
Jakarta visited the grave of their relatives and found it already
dug up.

"They were hysterical to find the skeletal remains scattered
all over the place and the coffin missing," he says.

Sources in the timber business estimate that a stolen top-
quality coffin could fetch about Rp 70,000 (US$5.80) on the black
market.

The head of the Surakarta public cemetery office, Soepodo,
said the number of looted Chinese graves could be higher than
reported.

The grave looting incidents also alarmed the legislative
council.

"The crime must be stopped. It is disgusting and deeply
offensive to the deceased's relatives," one councilor said.

In both Surakarta and Pekalongan, people who had their
relatives' graves looted say they could do nothing to stop the
crime except ask the police to investigate.

"In this economic chaos, what can one possibly do about it,"
says Budiman, aged 38, whose relative's grave in Pekalongan was
looted.

The grave looting has, for the moment, stopped and the
disturbed sites restored to their former state, including the
replacement of the stolen headstones.

However no one has been arrested and while public cemetery
officials have referred the hair-raising incidents to the
authorities, the police do not seem to have specific plans to
track down the perpetrators.