Least cruel people? Get real

In reply to Cyndy Cross' letter Wiranto a scapegoat (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 5, 2000), I would like to advise Ms. Cross to start living in the real world.

I am not going to judge whether Gen. Wiranto is to blame or not, as I believe in someone's innocence until they are proven guilty. If it is later proven that the military did commit these atrocities, then it is time that responsibility was taken at the top, and not halfway as in the past.

Despite the fact I am Indonesian, I take issue with Ms. Cross' other comment that Indonesians are one of the least cruel people in the world. It's unfortunate that she could not obtain the opinions of those women who were raped (some of them thrown back into their burning houses) during the May 1998 riots, the people butchered in Maluku, West Kalimantan, East Timor and Aceh, or the pickpocket who is beaten or burned to death by enraged people. Just because the violence may be worse in other places does not make what happens in Indonesia right.

MARIANNE TJAHYADI

Tangerang, West Java