TPGF confirms 66 rapes in riots

TPGF confirms 66 rapes in riots

JAKARTA (JP): The government-appointed team assigned to
investigate the mid-May riots in Jakarta and other cities
confirmed on Tuesday that 66 women, mostly Chinese-Indonesians,
were raped and that the unrest might well have involved
Soeharto's son-in-law Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto and former
Jakarta military commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.

In a long-awaited report whose preparation was reportedly
marked by dissent and tension among members, the team also linked
the riots to an alleged conspiracy of various parties including
elements within the military seeking to create an emergency
situation which would justify the invocation of "extra-
constitutional powers."

The team, known as TGPF and comprising members of the
government, Armed Forces and non-governmental organizations, said
preparations for the creation of the situation, including the
fatal shooting of four Trisakti University students and the
riots, were made at the "highest decision-making level."

"The whole process preceding the riots had a very clear
political dimension ... including efforts to secure extraordinary
powers based on (an existing) decree (which would have given) the
president (Soeharto) extra-constitutional powers to overcome any
temporary emergency situation," team chairman Marzuki Darusman
said after the announcement of the report during which the team's
creators -- five cabinet ministers and the attorney general --
were conspicuously absent.

Marzuki said at the Ministry of Justice the team had found
cases of sexual violence during the riots in Jakarta, Medan,
North Sumatra and Surabaya, East Java.

The team directly or indirectly verified 52 victims of rape,
another 14 victims of rape accompanied by violence and a further
10 victims of sexual attacks, Marzuki said.

There were an additional four cases of sexual harassment, he
said.

"Not all the victims of sexual violence were from the ethnic
Chinese (group), but the majority ... were women from the ethnic
Chinese (group,)" Marzuki said.

"TGPF also found the majority of the rapes were gang rapes,
where the victims were raped by a number of people at the same
time and in the same place," Marzuki said, adding most of the
rapes were committed before onlookers.

The team found nine victims of sexual violence who were
attacked before and after the May riots, adding they were linked
to those during the riots. Five of the victims were assaulted in
Medan between May 4 and May 8, two in Jakarta on July 2 and two
others in Surakarta, Central Java on July 8.

It also linked the unrest to a meeting at the headquarters of
the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) on May 14.

Marzuki said, reading from the report, that the team believed
the government "should conduct further investigations into
the ... meeting ... to reveal and ascertain the role of Lt. Gen.
Prabowo Subianto and other parties in the whole process which
precipitated the riots".

A source said Prabowo, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Golkar leader (now
manpower minister) Fahmi Idris, and businessman Setiawan Djody
were among those who attended the meeting.

The team concluded Sjafrie should be held responsible for the
allegedly nonexistent security during the riots.

The team said it had found a common pattern during the
rioting in various places, namely the presence of people with
certain physical characteristics (including well-built physiques
sporting crew cuts) who incited residents into violence.

The instigators were usually strangers in the areas where the
violence took place, appeared trained, highly mobile and were
also equipped with destructive means, including fuel and Molotov
cocktails, the 28-page report said.

"There was the involvement of many parties, from local thugs,
political and mass organizations, to several members and elements
of the Armed Forces (ABRI) that were out of control during the
riots," the report said.

The riots in Jakarta, some of the most violent the city has
ever witnessed, took place on May 13 to May 15. They caused
massive destruction, leaving more than 1,000 people dead, many of
whom were looters caught by fires in buildings.

The report did not mention any figures for those who died
during the riots but cited those earlier given by the Volunteers
for Humanity, the police and the military.

The volunteers claimed that 1,190 people died in fires in
Jakarta, and 27 others were killed by weapons. Another 33 people
died in riots outside Jakarta.

Police said 451 people were killed during the riots in Jakarta
and 32 outside Jakarta, while the military said 463 were killed
in Jakarta.

The findings were made public after several delays from the
original schedule of Oct. 23. Even on Tuesday, the announcement
was delayed for several hours during which time one team member,
Rosita S. Noer, left in apparent distress. (byg)