Twenty rape victims die, activists say

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty women who were targeted in systematic rapes and sexual assaults in Jakarta and other towns these past few weeks have died, some in the hands of their attackers, activists monitoring the incidents said yesterday.

The activists from the Volunteers of Humanity said they had solid evidence of at least 168 rapes of women and children dating back to the riots that broke out in May to as recently as July 3.

"152 women were raped or sexually abused in Jakarta and its surroundings, while 16 others were raped or sexually assaulted in Solo, Medan, Palembang and Surabaya," the report said.

Led by Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi, the group visited the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday to present the report which gave grisly and explicit details of the rapes.

The report said 20 women and children were either murdered by their assailants, burned to death after the rapists were through with them or subsequently died of their wounds.

It tells the story of a nine-year-old girl who was gang-raped in her house and then had her genitals mutilated. The girl died in a hospital in Singapore later.

The report were based on interviews with victims, their relatives and witnesses.

Most of the attacks happened in North and West Jakarta where a large ethnic Chinese community lives and works, the 18-page report said.

It said many of the survivors, relatives of the victims, witnesses, doctors, hospitals as well as the volunteers had received phone calls or letters threatening them if they disclosed their ordeal to the public or the authorities.

The Volunteers for Humanity was the first organization to raise the alarm about the systematic gang rapes during the May riots.

The activists urged the government to immediately disclose the masterminds behind these sadistic and uncivilized acts.

The human rights commission last week put the blame squarely on the government for security lapses that allowed the rapes and sexual assaults to become widespread.

It has also demanded a public apology from the government for its failure to protect people. (byg)