Rita is there in rape victims' hour of need

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): A woman has just been raped. Distraught, she comes up to you and utters, "Help me". The choice is yours -- drop everything, call a cab or drive her yourself to get medical assistance.

Or step back, physically and emotionally, deterred by the hassles of potential medical costs and accompanying her to the police, probably more than once. Add to that the tangled, frustrating bureaucracy, and your name splashed in the papers.

Rita Serena Kolibonso does not think twice. She helps. That is enough to make the simply dressed lawyer noteworthy, particularly amid the spate of recent rapes and sexual abuse where countless women, most of Chinese descent, were victims.

On June 28, 1995, she set up the Foundation to Eliminate Violence against Women. In May 1997, it was upgraded to the crisis center, Mitra Perempuan (Women's Friend).

When Rita picks up the phone on the increasingly popular helpline -- 8298421 -- in a soothing voice she will ask for information, assign one of the 21 Mitra staff or get up and go herself. When the victim is strong enough, Rita will suggest filing a complaint or seeing a psychologist.

If the woman agrees to seek legal help, Rita assigns a female counselor -- males are only accepted in non-counseling roles -- to accompany her to the police. Eventually she will make the umpteenth round herself to the courts, fighting "bureaucracy and judges who do not understand emotional violence".

Such work takes seven days a week, plus trips to the National Commission on Human Rights, hospitals and shelters, with compatriots from the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice (APIK). For Rita, 36, religion provides the strength she needs because "going to church every Sunday is a priority".

Twenty victims of the racial sexual abuse incidents in the May riots have called Mitra, but Rita suspects there are many more still too frightened and ashamed to come forward.

The following are excerpts from an interview last week.

Question: What are your comments on the statements of Minister of Women's Affairs Tutty Alawiyah. She has said several women called up hotline numbers 3805539 and 3805559 installed for rape victims, and that the ministry was to work with psychologists and the crisis center at the University of Indonesia.

Answer: ...Instead of the government showing it is taking over this situation, it would be much better if it supported NGO activities by advising the public, including the victims, to contact NGOs now working as volunteers and open government-run social centers, hospitals and shelters.

Tutty should also urge President B.J. Habibie to express his apologies... to the victims. He has not done that. (On Friday following a demand from the National Commission on Human Rights that the government acknowledge and apologize for the rapes, Tutty said the government condemned the gang rapes but implied apologies should wait for investigation results).

It should also provide facilities financial help to victims and their families who will need much time and money for recovery. Last, the ministry must raise primary concerns about Indonesian women by calling for the attention of the security forces... They were not around during the rapes. Why?

Your comments on allegations that the crimes were "organized."

It could be seen... in relation to the opportunity given to these groups to commit the acts. ...The government did not take immediate action or issue any statement to counteract the mass actions... This in itself could be considered as "collaborative" ...because security forces are responsible for public safety. Their absence led to embassies evacuating their citizens, but where were we, Indonesian citizens, to run to? The security officers and doers of those heinous actions: what kind of relationship do they have?

Q: Experts have said the mobs degraded Chinese-Indonesians by raping the women...

A: Rape is violence incorporated into sex... it boils down to envy, hunger. They... wanted to degrade them in the worst possible way... They ransacked shops obviously considered owned by males and took away the dignity of women by violence.

Q: You said the National Commission on Human Rights told you that the racial rapes were a conscious effort to tarnish the dignity of the Indonesian women, including Chinese, and they have stated it was "systematic rape." What is this, does it hark of "ethnic cleansing"?

A: (Systematic rapes mean) the rapes occurred continuously (the last was reported to Mitra earlier this month) ...and were targeted specifically to the ethnic Chinese. The rapes were related in terms of sexual harrasment and attack, humiliation and torture... Almost all ended in damaging the women's reproductive organs or death. I would not relate the rapes here to those in Bosnia but... some victims here ended up dead, or (according to medical reports) will never bear children, their reproductive organs destroyed.

If people really wanted to vent hatred, why did they do it through rape and not "just" killings?

They raped women with the target that the rapes should cause death and they conducted the rapes publicly so that the community concerned was terrorized and intimidated. With rape, they paralyze a society and cause them to flee and flee in shame.

(The less exposed work of Mitra Perempuan is its daily handling of reported cases. Rita added 70 cases of domestic violence, including marital rape, have been reported to Mitra Peremupan alone since the past six months. "Gender biases" in the legal system has been one factor blamed for continued abuse of women).

Q: What are your comments on the legal system and so-called gender biases?

A: The legal system here is the by-product of... patriarchal values reflecting male dominance... It's reflected in our (1974) marital law; the man's role is head of the family and breadwinner while the woman must be the housewife...

Q: How is rape represented in and protected by Indonesian criminal laws?

A: ...Criminal Code clause 285 states that the victimizer is one who conducts sex with a woman who is not his wife, violently or under threat. ...this means the alleged rapist is not considered as such if the man is the husband of the victim.

Literally, marital rape, by Indonesian law, is invalid.

Q: What about (criminal laws on) domestic violence?

A: None. There is no Indonesian law made to date that considers domestic violence a crime. ...Indonesian criminal codes, in relation to women, only protects minors.

...Even crazier: Men who rape underage girls (under 16), and women under sedation get lighter sentencing, nine years. The heaviest sentencing, 12 years, goes to rapes with no "conditions" attached... There have been many demonstrations (against this)... Since there is no minimum sentencing in our criminal laws, sentencing to rapists of underage girls and women under sedation could go as low as the rapist being put on probation.

Q: Many feel Indonesian women who are victims of domestic violence would never consider coming forward due to the shame that would befall their families...

A: Should a woman dare to come out and say that she was beaten by her husband, the mother or brothers, female and male relatives would tell her she cannot complain. It is considered utter insolence and impoliteness. ...The message is that you are owned by your husband. So don't you dare complain against your owner.

Q: What about abused wives who go straight to the police?

A: They are sent home. Police will "advise" her not to file the complaint. It's natural. ...Once your husband is behind bars, you will lose the family breadwinner and on top of that there is the shame on the family... (Police) run the guilt trip and "good- wife-logic" on the women...

Q: Which do you think is more practical considering this culture? Women going back home or filing a complaint, even going to court?

A: I will always defend the woman who ultimately goes to court and demands her rights. That way, she is channeling her anger in the right manner. It beats wives murdering their husbands.

Recently, a woman called Suyatmi stabbed her husband to death and finally the woman had to face the charge of murder.

Q: Can't it be considered self-defense?

A: It is difficult to call it self-defense in court because after being accused, she yells and fights back. She will be sentenced because again, people see it as the woman should accept... maybe to death.

Q: What do the women usually face here in our courts?

A: After being sent back home by the police, the woman faces court biases. Indonesian courts do not consider emotional violence.

They do not see that all domestic violence, whether beatings, restrictions or verbal abuse, causes sometimes irreparable emotional damage. It is a pressure that is not accepted because it is not immediately seen. Courts do not see sleeping disorders or nightmares, depression or even suicidal inclinations...

Q: How do you think the recent May 4 case of 20 Teacher's Training College students in Medan who were harassed by police officers was treated?

A: The National Commission on Human Rights sent a male member with a military background to interview a victim. The interview itself is a horror story. ...The victim, while narrating her story to the press, fainted, got up and kept on telling the story. The commission showed no... sensitivity.

The victim had to narrate very personal, terrible details; that she was stripped, her whole body molested, she was told to do push-ups naked...

The commission member (told Mitra) that he just could not understand why (the victim's narration) had to go to that extent (fainting); he suspected she was being melodramatic.

We told him that her fainting should have proved to him that the incident actually happened. This was why the girl was so traumatized, she fainted. There was no doctor present either.

Q: Crisis centers here are all new. How does your center deal with police reports, court appearances, and after-court procedures with victims?

A: Mitra Perempuan has 21 volunteers trained in psychology and the situation of the legal system here. Mitra works with groups of psychologists... The moment it finds out about a victim, Mitra... aims to first give her emotional strength and care...

Mitra works with APIK, the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice, founded in 1995... to accompany the woman... (and) defend their cases in court. There are 16 people working at APIK.

Q: Having done your master's in international law at Sheffield University, England, why did you opt to work in social welfare?

A: I have been used to living with troubles faced by Indonesian women. I always seem to see it around me.

I studied in an all-girl (Catholic) school, Tarakanita. There, I used to hear and read about abuse of young girls. In college, I became interested in doing social work at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

I worked for 10 years... it was where I saw things. So many things that happen to Indonesian women through no fault of their own... clashes with culture, clashes with law, marriage. These are things that women find complicated to deal with emotionally, even for me.

Then I thought that I am among the few Indonesian women who has been given the opportunity to learn and understand law... I have to try and change situations here not only for the future of Indonesian women but also for myself.

...I felt it was just right for me to go into the field that combined both law and complexities faced by Indonesian women. I started off a trainee until I became a senior lawyer right under the director (renowned lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana).

During the last four years, I felt... I was able to give my total, immediate concern and devote myself for changes in current Indonesian laws... marital rape, domestic violence or new ones on human rights for women.

Q: Did your parents challenge your thoughts on gender biases?

A: ...Never ...that's more than enough for me. My father is from Maluku, very patriarchal, and my mother matrilineal from Minangkabau, West Sumatra. He is an economist and she a nurse... Three of the daughters (including Rita) are still unmarried. Our parents said they were embarrassed... we told them when children grow up they try to do their best for which parents should be proud of. I feel... (my choice) has been very influenced by what I have experienced.

At the Legal Aid Institute, the issue of the abuse of woman was so difficult to deal with in terms of it being treated as a human rights violation... (also) there were no related laws.

Violence was only perceived in relation to pressure on political movements; when political issues were raised, including feminist concerns (like violence against women), these were not considered a problem of the masses, but of women. So, they are considered secondary.

So I thought that we needed to provide legal aid for women and to set up a (specific) crisis center for abused women...

In 1995, some 100 NGOs attended the Forum of Indonesian NGOs for Women, was held. Mien Sugandhi, former minister of women's affairs, came and all agreed -- psychologists, doctors, journalists, lawyers -- that we needed a crisis center.

(Even now) during the UN meeting on the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in February in New York... the government's report did not include data on domestic violence, including marital rape...

Q: ...Is marriage an option to you?

A: Problems of women are too complicated here. And I just reject the idea that once the woman is married, she becomes the possession of the man. To get the opposite of that is something that requires a lot of bargaining power, particularly if you want to marry an Indonesian man.