Slain Ita 'a rape victim in May riots'

JAKARTA (JP): An executive of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association said on Sunday that he believed Marthadinata, who was murdered on Friday, was one of the rape victims of the mid-May riots.

The association's deputy chairman, Paskah Irianto, surmised that the 18-year-old, who was better known as Ita, was about to recount her assault in the United States in the next few days. Ita was a member of Volunteers of Humanity, which provides counseling to victims of the mass rapes.

"I think that for her safety, Ita was named a volunteer who would accompany the rape victims to testify in the States," he told the media while attending Ita's cremation at Cilincing crematorium in North Jakarta.

"It's difficult for me to understand why the (Volunteers of Humanity) team should trust an 18-year-old girl to accompany rape victims, who, of course, require professional handling."

Her mother was also scheduled to accompany her on the trip, Paskah said.

He said the pretense was understandable.

"It's common for human rights activists to use such protection for the victims."

Volunteers team coordinator Ign. Sandyawan Sumardi said he did not know for sure if Ita was a rape victim.

"But, to be frank, I also suspected that Ita was a rape victim.

"How could a girl her age accompany rape victims? What is her role in the planned journey to the U.S. if she was not a victim?" Sandyawan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday night.

He denied that Volunteers was organizing the U.S. trip.

"It's the plan of the Buddhist center to send four rape victims to the U.S."

He said Ita's mother was a member of the center, which has its own network for providing counseling to the rape victims and has links with Volunteers.

Volunteers has claimed that 168 ethnic Chinese women were raped or sexually assaulted during the May riots.

Jakarta Police chief May. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman challenged Paskah and Sandyawan to provide evidence of their assertions.

"Many say that Ita was one of the rape victims, but please don't listen to what they say unless they can give me evidence on it," Noegroho said on a separate occasion on Sunday.

Ita was found in her home on Jl. Berlian III in Central Jakarta with multiple stab wounds and a slashed throat.

At about 10 p.m. on Saturday, the Central Jakarta police arrested a 22-year-old male neighbor of Ita as a suspect in her murder.

Suryadi, alias Otong, was found with the victim's imitation jewelry and his blood-stained clothes in his possession, police said.

Police insist the murder was a pure crime and has nothing to do with the victim's humanitarian activities.

According to Noegroho, the unemployed suspect first thought the unlocked house was empty.

"He entered the house without any difficulty and started searching for valuables from one room to another," Noegroho said.

Ita spotted Otong downstairs when she came out of her room on the second floor. "The victim screamed and shouted 'thief' which caused Otong to panic," Noegroho said.

Otong ran to the second floor and grabbed Ita. He tied her up with cables and stuffed her mouth with socks.

"The suspect then rushed to the family's kitchen and took a knife. He first tried to threaten Ita who was attempting to free herself from the cable and the socks, but he became upset and stabbed the victim," Noegroho said.

After killing Ita, he searched her room and took the fake jewelry from her drawer.

Otong left the room and used the house keys to lock the front doors from outside. He tossed the bundle of keys and the knife into the nearby Sunter River and buried a double-bladed knife, a bra, a pair of socks and a T-shirt in front of Ita's house.

After cleaning himself and hiding his bloody trousers and shirt at his house, he slept and woke up later in the afternoon.

Otong told the police he set out to rob the house because he wanted to help pay off his father's Rp 1.5 million debt.

Police had found all the evidence, including the keys dumped in the river, by Sunday afternoon.

"I didn't rape her or harass her during my attempt to make her quiet," Otong told the police.

Head of the Jakarta Police detective chief Col. Gories Mere said: "It's up to them (the Volunteers) if they want to claim that the murder has a political background. It is a crime with an economic background.

"About the sodomy signs and so on, that is the victim's past and privacy. I have no comment on that."

During the cremation on Sunday, Ita's plain coffin was covered with her clothes, including her school uniform, and bags. A wilted floral wreath was also laid on among the clothes.

"I won't sue anybody. Don't force any parties into corners," Ita's mother, Wiwin Suriadinata, said. (ind/emf/aan)