Wed, 12 Aug 1998

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)