On rape victims

In a letter you published on July 15 under the insensitive title 'Rape victims have no future', Mrs. Soeparman suggested that the women who had been raped in the recent riots "will be engulfed by a feeling of shame for the rest of their lives, will feel inferior... [and] will be reluctant to get married, being shameful of having lost their virginity."

As a woman and as a member of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Soeparman should be wiser about just who should shoulder the shame. Let's be clear about this: There is no sexuality involved in rape -- no attraction, no illicit sensuality. This is certainly true for the victims, but also true for the rapists: Otherwise, why would the men have repeatedly told their victims, "You are ugly!".

Rape, though based on the sex act, is at its core a brutal attack, meant to physically and psychologically destroy the victim. If a man is cruelly beaten with clubs by a band of muggers, is he ashamed or does society see him as an object of shame? No. Similarly, the women who have been systematically raped should not be ashamed, nor should they be made to feel ashamed.

The 152 women who were raped in the past two months (and those are only the ones who have reported the attacks) should be comforted, aided and supported in every physical and psychological way possible. Friends, family, the entire society should help them get through this difficult period and then look forward to the future. Certainly the prayers of Mrs. Soeparman and others will give some comfort.

But barbarous acts such as rape require temporal action as well. The public must demand that the attackers be apprehended, tried, convicted and incarcerated for their crimes -- and continue to pressure the authorities until the rapists are identified and punished, under law. Law enforcement agencies -- in addition to vigorously investigating the rape cases -- must review their policies regarding victims of sexual attacks and find ways in which they can aid the victims, not traumatize them further.

Legislators must revise the laws so that in the future the courts can deal with such heinous acts in a swift, decisive and severe manner. The President must put the full weight of his office behind investigations into charges, made by women's groups counseling rape victims, that the rapes were part of an organized plan to terrorize society. If true, not only the rapists, but those who laid the plans must be tried, convicted and severely punished. Above all, the government and particularly the President, must make it clear to all that, in a civil society, such acts will not be tolerated.

Yes, there is plenty of shame in rape, but it must be properly assigned: The shame belongs to the rapists who commit such bestialities; to the authorities who failed, and continue to fail, in their duties; and finally, the shame belongs to an apathetic public that allows such crimes to take place and then passes the blame on to innocent victims.

Until Mrs. Soeparman, the editors of the Post, and other Indonesians realize this, it is not the rape victims who have no future -- it is the entire society.

SUZANNE CHARLE

New York