Trauma and horror remains for women raped by rioters

Trauma and horror remains for women raped by rioters

JAKARTA (JP): The debris around many of the buildings damaged
during last month's riots has been cleaned up and business is
slowly restarting.

But for most of the women raped between May 13 and May 15 just
facing up to the fact that they are still alive is an almost
unbearable burden.

"For the victims, death would have been better than anything
else," Ita F. Nadia, chairwomen of Kalyanamitra, a women's
organization, told The Jakarta Post on Monday evening.

The women, mostly Chinese-Indonesians, have been deeply
traumatized, Ita said.

"Their experiences have cast a shadow over every second of
their lives and tears falling from their mournful eyes are
unstoppable," she said.

"They're scared and fear sleep because of the nightmares which
it brings."

Ita believes that the people who raped and sexually abused
women during last month's riots were "so brutal, inhumane and
heartless that they do not deserve the life which they have been
given."

"They violated not only the victims' human rights, but also
their right to live" she said tensely.

"Tell me, what kind of human beings are evil enough to rape a
12-year-old girl in front of her helpless parents?," Ita asked.

"They're incredibly cruel and brutal," she said.

Kalyanamitra are trying to persuade the girl's parents to
allow them to help banish the horror of the attack and help the
little girl to slowly rebuild her childhood, Ita said.

Some of the attacks even went beyond rape and abuse, she
added.

"A man told us that his wife's attackers mutilated her
genitals with a razor blade after first raping her," Ita said.

Another man visited the organization a few days earlier to
tell them about the tragic death of his two sisters, Ita
recounted.

He told how his two teenage sisters were raped by at least
seven people. The gang then threw them into the fire which they
had started in their family home, Ita said.

He was rescued by his neighbors, who tried to extinguish the
blaze.

A housewife, also a Chinese-Indonesian, was brutally harassed
and raped before being left alone by her assailants in her
burning house, her relatives told Kalyanamitra.

"The woman finally decided to commit suicide," Ita said.

One young woman had a lucky escape after her taxi was stopped
by a mob in the middle of the night of May 14. She was forced out
of her taxi and undressed in front of the crowd, she said.

"Then a man pushed through the crowd, pulled me out and gave
me Moslem clothes to wear," the woman recalled.

The terror and confusion of the attacks has made it nearly
impossible for the victims and their relatives to accurately
describe their attackers. Investigations have been further
hampered by the state of anarchy which reigned at the time which
has made it almost impossible to confirm the actions and
whereabouts of any suspected rapists.

"But all of the victims are sure that they have never met
their attackers before," she said.

Ita said the organization had received many more telephone
calls from women recounting horrifying tales of abuse and
brutality.

Many women had refused to meet staff from the organization
directly, she said.

"We have to be patient and fully understand their feelings, we
are here when they are ready," Ita said.

The organization is treating all calls and approaches for help
in strict anonymity.