Taiwan condemns RI for ethnic Chinese abuses

Taiwan condemns RI for ethnic Chinese abuses

TAIPEI (Agencies): Taiwan yesterday warned Indonesia against
condoning a spread of human rights abuses and sexual assault
against ethnic Chinese.

"Ethnic Chinese have been a major power behind Indonesia's
economy," Foreign Minister Jason Hu told reporters. "If this
anti-Chinese sentiment continues, the country will suffer great
harm."

Meanwhile, scores of protesters demonstrated at Indonesia's
representative office in Taipei to condemn Indonesian authorities
for the violence against ethnic Chinese during the rioting there
in May.

Ethnic Chinese often are scapegoats in Indonesia in times of
unrest because they control a significant part of the economy.

Lawmaker Pan Wei-kang said some of the assaulted women who
were assaulted in May, who ranged in age from 9 to 60, committed
suicide or suffered emotional breakdowns.

She accused Indonesian authorities of hampering the probes
launched by human rights groups and blocking the assaulted women
from seeking medical treatment abroad.

Ahmed Beysofwan, deputy head of the Indonesian mission in
Taipei, said his government has severely punished those who
engaged in violence, but acknowledged that further action has
been hampered by continued unrest.

Taiwan and Indonesia do not have diplomatic relations. But
Taiwan has invested US$13.2 billion in Indonesia, and several
factories owned by Taiwan investors were ransacked in the May
rioting.

Singapore

Meanwhile in Singapore, women's rights advocates are calling
for the rapes of Chinese women during Indonesia's May riots to be
classified as war crimes and not mere rapes, the Straits Times
newspaper reported yesterday.

They said a signal had to be sent that such acts of violence
against women and children must be seen as war crimes. Regional
governments had to take a stand that women would be protected,
irrespective of their race, they said.

"These are organized acts, and not sporadic ones. It is a
system of using women to cripple the menfolk," former member of
parliament Kanwaljit Soin told the newspaper.

Soin suggested that the status of the rapes should be
discussed by the Association Of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We are very concerned that once again, raping women has been
used as a weapon of war," said Anamah Tan, president of the
Singapore Council of Women's Organizations.

Singapore's Association of Women for Action and Research
(Aware) has also sent a letter to the Indonesian ambassador to
express its concern over the rapes, the newspaper said.