Slain Ita 'a rape victim in May riots'

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)