Mid-May riots were provoked by agitators: Governor
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso indicated yesterday that the mid-May riots were not only an expression of people's anger over the nation's economic disparity but were provoked by agitators.
After a two-hour hearing with the government-sponsored fact- finding team, he said there were "operators in control of the riots".
"They were organized," he said, without elaboration.
Sutiyoso is the second government official to have testified before the investigation team. On Wednesday, the team questioned former Jakarta military commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.
Yesterday's meeting, held at the Ministry of Justice in South Jakarta, was also attended by Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi and the capital's five mayors.
Seen among the team members were Zulkarnain Yunus of the ministry's Directorate of General Crimes, Bambang W. Soeharto of the National Commission on Human Rights, academic Saparinah Sadli, businesswoman Rosita S. Noer and Bambang Widjojanto of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute.
Widjojanto said the team had identified a certain pattern of agitation during the riots, which would have required a certain level of skill to organize.
"It is easy for people to burn a car. But not all people can burn down a high-rise building," Widjojanto quoted Sutiyoso as saying.
Widjojanto pointed out that the riots were concentrated in places close to slum areas. He said both Sutiyoso and Sjafrie had recognized that the nation's economic wealth disparity contributed to the riots.
The unrest, that occurred in the capital from May 13 to May 15, triggered lawlessness and violence in several parts of the country.
A report by the Volunteers of Humanity has said the Jakarta rioting was incited by people who appeared to have been well organized. It also claimed that hundreds of women were gang-raped during the riots.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Abdul Gafur told nine visiting staff members of the U.S. Congress Wednesday that reports about the rape of Chinese-Indonesian women during the riots had been exaggerated.
"We do not rule out the possibility that gang rapes occurred, yet the reports have been exaggerated by certain parties," Gafur told the delegation, as quoted by Antara.
The U.S. Congress staff members included Daniel E. Bob who works for Senator Roth on Asia-Pacific Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that pictures labeled as May rapes circulating on the Internet were fakes.
Spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl quoted a report in the Asian Wall Street Journal that the photos were taken from the pornographic website Sexy Asian Schoolgirls which had nothing to do with the mid-May riots.
The daily's correspondents Jeremy Wagstaff and Jay Solomon reportedly mentioned a picture of a naked, bleeding woman as coming from a collection called the Gore Gallery, in Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
The picture came into the hands of Michael Hames nine months ago, according to Antara.
Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto submitted a police report to a weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday that said the police had investigated 103 reports of rape during the May riots but had yet to find any evidence to support the claims of widespread sexual assaults made by various groups. (imn)