Magazine angers religious group
Magazine angers religious group
JAKARTA (JP): Thirty people from a group called Asosiasi
Pembela Islam (Defenders of Islam Association) have strongly
urged police to investigate Jakarta Jakarta weekly magazine's
motives for printing a recent article on the May riots.
In a meeting with city police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho
Djajoesman, the group members said the article in the July
edition running under the headline Vivian, which was about a
Chinese-Indonesian woman raped during the May riots, had hurt the
feelings of Moslems.
"The story is misleading. We, the Moslem people, have been
offended by some statements in that story," Eggi Sudjana, a
member of the group, told the media.
The group said it represented 22 Islamic organizations,
including the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals
(ICMI), Indonesian Committee for World Islamic Solidarity
(KISDI), the Islamic Students Association (HMI), the Coordinating
Body for Indonesian Islamic Boarding Schools (BKSPI), the Islamic
Youths Movement (GPI), and Muhammadiyah Youths.
During the one-hour meeting, the group urged police to
question the author of the article and the magazine's editor.
The story, quoted by the magazine from the Internet, revealed
the painful experience of Vivian, her younger sister Venni and
her auntie Vera, who were raped by a group of men during the
riots.
The report said Venni was killed by the rapists as she tried
to fight off their advances.
In the article, F.X. Rudy Gunawan quoted the rapist as saying:
"You must be raped because you are Chinese and non-Muslim".
The sentence in the Indonesian-language magazine was printed
in English.
"This sentence surely indicates that there was an attempt to
discredit Moslem people here.
"We're also questioning if rapes really happened during the
riots like the report claimed," another member in the meeting
said.
According to the group, the editor and the author should be
dragged before the court to face charges under Article 156 and
156a of the Criminal Code for defaming a group or a religious
group. The charges would carry a maximum penalty of five years in
prison.
Noegroho promised to study the case.
The two-star general added the police have been trying hard to
find out the truth following reports of rape and violent sexual
assaults during the May riots but still "haven't found any clues
so far"
Earlier on Monday, Jakarta Jakarta deputy chief editor Seno
Gumira Ajidarma said in a letter published in Republika daily
that the quote was taken from an article in the New York Times of
June 10.
"The report was also based on an interview with Ita Nadia from
Kalyanamitra (a non-governmental organization concerned with
women's rights)," Seno said in the letter. (edt)