Organized groups behind recent riots: Sandyawan

JAKARTA (JP): Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi disclosed findings that support the recent conclusion of the National Commission on Human Rights that last month's riots, in which almost 1,200 people died, were organized.

In a seven-page report published yesterday, Sandyawan, a rights activist for the Volunteers for Humanity, said that a common pattern had preceded rioting in all five of Jakarta's mayoralties.

He cited witnesses and victims from a number of areas in Jakarta who said they saw gangs of people arrive in trucks and buses to start rioting, burning and looting, before moving on to other places.

"These people were seen urging crowds to come out of alleys and start rioting," Sandyawan told a packed meeting in the Jakarta Legal Aid office in Central Jakarta yesterday.

He said these unidentified people then mingled with the crowd, yelling anti-Chinese slogans, and started the rampage.

Sandyawan said the alleged provocateurs were wearing senior high school uniforms or military boots, and all sported crew-cut hair.

The report said dozens of people wearing senior high school uniforms scrambled down from two trucks and one mini-van then tried to attack the Pembangunan Nasional University in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta.

It also said that four men who claimed to be students led the looting and burning of a shopping center in Klender, East Jakarta, which left hundreds of people dead.

The report said that a number of people in senior high school uniforms were seen urging a mob to ransack shops along streets in Grogol, West Jakarta.

"These people disappeared shortly after the mobs began to riot," the report said.

A boy involved in the looting of Jatinegara Plaza in East Jakarta admitted he had been "trained" along with thousands of other boys at a number of locations, including Cilangkap, Ciracas, and Pondok Gede in East Jakarta, Bekasi and Bogor, the priest revealed.

Sandyawan said the riots from May 13 to May 15 left at least 1,193 people dead. He said 25 people received gunshots wounds, 63 were severely wounded by other causes, 18 sustained minor injuries, and 32 were still missing.

He said most victims were residents of Jakarta's poorer areas.

"The government has been attempting to manipulate the true casualty figures," Sandyawan added.

Sandyawan's figure is more than twice as high as official estimates made by the military, which the rights commission have accused of doing too little, too late to quell the violence and save lives.

It noted that security forces had failed to anticipate signs that rioting was imminent. Moreover, when the violence started "there was no sign of any serious efforts by security forces to prevent its spread."

The commission has urged the government to "thoroughly investigate the security forces for not attempting to deal with the riots."

Mitra Perempuan, a women's rights group, is also investigating reports that dozens of women were sexually abused and raped during the riots. (byg)