Rape protesters get a shock

Rape protesters get a shock

SINGAPORE (DPA): Singapore's top women's group got a surprise when it handed Indonesian embassy officials a petition protesting alleged mass rapes in Indonesia, the group's president said on Thursday.

Indonesian officials on Wednesday accepted the 40,000- signature petition -- but then offered to let the Singaporeans meet a group of 22 Indonesian maids who say that they were raped or abused in Singapore and are being sheltered at the embassy.

The Indonesians' move was a "face-saving" maneuver, said Phyllis Chew, president of Singapore's Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). "It's very hard to receive criticism," Chew said. "You have to deflect it somehow."

Chew said AWARE had declined to meet the maids immediately. "It's face-saving... I thought I would give that to them," she said. "I didn't come forward and say 'that's not the point.'"