May 1998 riot victims still waiting for justice to come

May 1998 riot victims still waiting for justice to come

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta

For the last six years, Mey Ling (not her real name) has never
missed a prayer, asking God to punish the group of men who gang-
raped her on a street in West Jakarta as riots swept the capital
in May 1998.

"I am not a saint, I will never forgive those men. I hope they
all are condemned to hell. This is the only thing I can do," she
told The Jakarta Post during an interview on Monday evening.

She added that she had lost hope of ever seeing the rapists
being brought to justice.

Mey Ling, now 28, was a final year student at a private
university in West Jakarta when the incident occurred. She was on
her way from the campus to her home in the Jembatan Lima area
when a number of men stopped the bus she was riding on.

"They shouted, where are Chinese, where are Chinese, and they
pulled me and other bus passengers of Chinese descent off. The
driver and his assistant tried to stop them but they were
outnumbered," she said.

The male Chinese passengers were beaten up by the men, all of
whom were wearing black long-sleeved shirts and carrying wooden
sticks. About four or five female passengers were gang-raped, Mey
Ling recalled.

"What's did I do? I never asked to be borne Chinese. Why did
they do that?" she cried.

The interview had to be stopped several times as Mey Ling
found herself unable to hold back the tears as she recounted the
worst moments of her life.

"I don't care about politics. I don't care who becomes the
president or vice president as long as he or she punishes those
who did this to me," she said.

Mey Ling failed to finish her studies. Her family is not
wealthy enough to emigrate, so now she prefers to stay at home
where she feels safe. She now helps her parents, who sell plastic
domestic goods.

Since the incident, Mey Ling, who has decided not to marry,
says she hates native Indonesians as they remind her of the
rapists.

Another victim, Andi Kusuma, said he could only hope the
Indonesia people would elect leaders who were capable of
maintaining security in the country. But he also hoped the next
president would investigate the May riots and bring the
perpetrators to justice.

"We don't seek revenge. We only want justice to prevail," said
Andi, whose house and computer shop in Glodok were burnt down by
a group of unidentified men.

Andi, whose arms were burnt during the incident, said he was
lucky that his wife and their two children had not been harmed as
they were visiting his parents-in-law in Yogyakarta at the time.

"Frankly speaking, we placed a lot of hope in the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). But, their investigation
means nothing without the political will on the part of the
government. I was a little bit disappointed when Pak Solahuddin
decided to team up with Pak Wiranto," he said.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
investigated the riots and held a number of military and police
officers responsible, including former military commander Gen.
(ret) Wiranto.

The Komnas HAM team was led by its deputy chairman Solahuddin
Wahid, who eventually stepped down after he decided to pair up
with Wiranto for the upcoming presidential election.

Muntaris, 47, and his 41-year-old wife, Nurhayati, will never
forget the flames that razed the Yogya Department Store in
Klender subdistrict, East Jakarta, on May 13, 1998, an incident
that resulted in the death of their eldest son, Achmad Zakir,
then 18.

They now prohibit their three remaining children from visiting
the shopping center, which is located only around 100 meters away
from their home, even though the department store now has a new
name -- Central Klender Plaza.

"I've told my children that I'll cut off their legs if they go
there," Muntaris told the Post.

On the eve of the riot, Zakir wrote in his diary: "Thank you,
heroes of reform. You have gone for good. You dared to sacrifice
your lives. My prayers will always be with you. Your names will
be remembered forever. I hope your good deeds will be accepted by
Allah the Almighty. Amen".

Muntaris recalled that his son had just finished his final
exams in his vocational school. He was waiting for graduation day
when he lost his life to the flames in the mall, together with
hundreds of other people.

"I do not know who was responsible for what happened, but I
believe that someone must be punished," said Muntaris, who works
as a polisher with a furniture company.

Indeed, six years is not enough to heal the wounds suffered by
the victims of the riots and their families. Neither can they
forget their individual nightmares, let alone forgive those
responsible.