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.