JP/7/MAY

JP/7/MAY

Unwillingness to look into May riots
contributes to continued impunity

Ati Nurbaiti
Staff Writer
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

An infant has been born out of rape, at least one rape victim
is mentally ill and 20 others have died, including by suicide.
Many still mourn for missing relatives. This is just a small part
of the legacy from the May 1998 riots, which has joined other
mysteries in our history.

To little enthusiasm, last month the National Commission for
Human Rights announced it was reopening the investigation into
the riots. On June 3 the National Commission for Violence Against
Women released a new book on the tragedy, Disangkal! Tragedi Mei
1998 Dalam Perjalanan Bangsa (Denied! The 1998 May tragedy in the
nation's course).

It is painful reading. One survivor says she hopes to become a
plastic surgeon to help other women -- she was one of two women
forced by four men into a van on May 14, 1998, where their
breasts were cut off.

In the tragedy, at least 1,200 died, mainly in burning
shopping centers in a number of cities. A week after the riots,
triggered by the fatal shooting of four students at a peaceful
rally, Soeharto stepped down as president.

There has been little hope of solving the mystery of May 1998,
for a number of reasons. First, cases piled on top of other
cases, both old and new, leaving no room to decide which to
forget and which to pursue.

The "reform" euphoria quickly faded in the face of so much to
cope with -- the announcement by the human right's commission
that it was reopening the case came amid still confusing plans
for next year's elections and a war in Aceh, while the economic
crisis is yet to abate.

The challenge in reopening the case will precisely be because
it is a strong candidate to be forgotten. What makes the 1998
riots difficult to face is that it involves sexual assault and
rape, mostly targeting Chinese-Indonesians.

It means facing the issue of racism, which is so uncomfortable
that "it wouldn't do" to open up the wounds of victims and
survivors. This is despite the fact that a team set up by the
government concluded that the May tragedy was well-planned and
systematic. Sociologist Ariel Heryanto has written that "rape has
not been part of a public expression of hatred", echoing
observations that the perpetrators likely had some prior
conditioning.

Ariel and others have pointed out how the May riots were a
horrible display of political violence, though far from new, and
that racism happened to be a convenient tool.

Yet while there are many confirmed testimonies of the May
riots being orchestrated, many here may think that precious time
and energy may be better spent on things other than reopening a
case that will nag them about their feelings on racism.

The attacks on Chinese-owned shops and Chinese-looking women
were surely based on the assumption of existing prejudices
against this minority, and what offended people was the
impression that people resented the Chinese so much that they
raped them.

Given much experience with ugly games under the New Order, it
was rather surprising and deeply saddening that this feeling of
offense dominated public discourse, oblivious to how the victims
and survivors must have felt. The evil masterminds of the riots
must have watched the ensuing mudslinging with glee. Many pointed
to the "exclusivity" of the Chinese resulting in "social
jealousy", others said that the riots and reports of hundreds of
gang rapes were meant to discredit the majority of society, the
Muslims.

The debates went on and on while such arguments failed to
explain why women were sexually assaulted -- though a few
feminists attempted to point out that rape is a regular, ancient
tool for conquering the enemy -- and activists quietly fumed over
the fact that scores of urban poor, who died in infernos, were
stigmatized as "looters", buried in unmarked graves and
forgotten.

Much of the coverage centered on locating evidence of reported
gang rapes, and resentment grew against activists when the fact-
finding team finally came in with the official number of "only"
56 rape cases. Numbers became vital -- in one alleged rape case a
woman turned out to have been "only stripped in public, not
raped", went one report. Activists were also accused of having a
hidden agenda because they would not identify victims of rape and
sexual assault to investigators or the media.

The emotional discourse ignored not only the victims and
survivors, but greatly hampered the public's capacity to
understand the vulnerability of our society to ugly political
games and provocation and the violence that these entailed.

Another related issue left unaddressed is the vulnerability of
women here to be used as tools to silence the enemy, as has
occurred in conflict areas across the country.

That vulnerable people are repeatedly selected for convenient
targets was not lost on women -- the above book reminds us how
leading women such as psychologist Saparinah Sadli faced then
president B.J. Habibie and demanded a public apology. On June 16
1998, Habibie declared that the government condemned and
apologized for the riots and the losses entailed; that the
government would immediately form a joint fact-finding team; and
that the government would immediately set up a National
Commission for Violence Against Women, later chaired by Sadli.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Father Sandyawan
Sumardi, among the activists assisting survivors of the May
riots, said that survivors no longer hoped for compensation or to
have the stigma of being labeled looters lifted from them. They
even seem to hold out little hope for justice. Since May 1998, as
the country witnessed an unprecedented spread of communal
conflict, the survivors seemed to know better.

The priest said the survivors wanted "a total renewal of the
whole system in society, so such a tragedy would not happen again
in the future and the circle of violence would stop".

They seem to be aware of the common sense of despair that
anyone will be held accountable for even one of the many vicious
crimes here. Without investigations into such violent incidents
as the May tragedy, the circle of violence indeed continued --
masses can be mobilized, at least to riot, while a few dozen
groups can be trained to victimize any convenient target, even to
merely create chaos, to make a point.

And, of course, they walk free.