Women's dignity is the casualty in the mass rapes

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Words are not enough to describe the anguish, helplessness and humiliation of a woman raped.

Feelings of their male kin, some of whom saw with their own eyes the assaults on their wives and daughters, are equally difficult to put into neat, articulate sentences.

Hananto, not his real name, said his wife chose death to end the pain.

Deeply shamed, she refused to eat and speak after her rape.

"When we left her just for a second, she gulped a can of Baygon (a brand of insecticide) and died instantly," he told the National Commission on Human Rights last week.

Another man said: "Why do people keep intimidating us? We never feel we are Chinese because we were born in Indonesia and we are Indonesian citizens."

Terrible tales and the tormented emotions of many Chinese- Indonesians are only now beginning to trickle out following the riots which wreaked havoc in Jakarta and other cities on May 14- May 15.

Irwanto, a sociologist from Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, said a broad spectrum of gripes was behind the targeting of Chinese-Indonesians, particularly women.

"It was obviously seen as having cultural, economic and political dimensions."

He pinpointed the community's oft-cited scapegoating over issues of uneven wealth and welfare distribution.

"The mob would not dare to attack the government, which is also responsible for bringing down their lives ...

"There are only a few people of Chinese origin who are rich and conduct 'crooked' businesses."

But people have frequently tainted the entire Chinese- Indonesian community by summarily associating it with a few greedy tycoons.

Last Wednesday, a group of Chinese-Indonesians lodged their complaints with the National Commission on Human Rights. They demanded the government's protection and a thorough investigation into the riots, including rapes of their relatives.

Irwanto explained that mass rapes and sexual torture of women in times of crisis were nothing new. Women and children are the most vulnerable group in a society and their lives can be easily shaken by crises, including riot and war.

He said the sexual assaults, spoken of only in whispers until a few days ago, were the manifestation of male dominance over women.

Symbolic

Rape, he explained, was an aggressive act committed by a man or a group of men which was not meant primarily for sexual satisfaction but satisfied the perpetrators in their humiliation and dominance of the victims.

"Since women of Chinese descent were mostly victims of the rape, the act exemplifies the mob's hatred against this community."

Violence committed against these women can be regarded as symbolic rape of the body of that community, Irwanto said.

Sita Aripurnami, an executive of the Kalyanamitra women's organization, said the rapes were not only against the victims themselves, but symbolically attacked Indonesian women in general.

The organization is handling several reports of abuse during the riots.

"We consider these rapes as serious violations against women's rights to live in peace in their country," Sita said.

Most of the reports involved Chinese-Indonesian women.

"But, we are still investigating whether women of other communities were also affected."

She added an important caveat: "I hate to say indigenous women because we are all Indonesian women."

The rapes reflected the degradation and humiliation of women, she said. The rapes embody patriarchal values toward female citizens, in which women's rights are not respected, promoted and protected both by society and authorities, Sita said.

It also showed that women, even within their own society or own cultural groups, run a considerably greater risk of being victims of bodily harmed than men.

"In a rape, there is a desire to harm and destroy a woman as 'woman' because the essence of her independence and sense of wholeness as a woman and as a human being is attacked by the rapist," explained Sita, who is active in various antirape campaigns and the protection of women's rights.

The rapists tried to show their power by attacking women's reproductive organs, symbolically viewed by the society as representing dignity and sanctity, she said.

"Now, we have to work very hard to restore and to recover the dignity of victims of rapes."

Irwanto added that it would be a long, difficult process for rape victims to recover, if they ever do.

"I am glad to see women's crisis centers and humanitarian activists working hand in hand to help rape victims or other women who were sexually abused during the May riots. But I don't see any program launched by the government," Irwanto said.

"Many government measures are unclear and confusing. These victims badly need security guarantees and protection. Therefore, the government should outline concrete steps."

Lack of sensitivity

The State Minister of Women's Affairs has just opened a hot line service to accommodate complaints of riot victims, particularly women, but many view the move as coming too late. Moreover, there was no concrete program announced by the office.

Ratna Batara Munti from the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice (APIK) was incensed by State Minister of Women's Affairs Tutty Alawiyah's apparent lack of sensitivity to the plight of the women.

"I am very disappointed that the minister has not shown a sense of crisis in these rape cases and other forms of violence against women during the riot," Ratna said. "She (the minister) is actually the one who has access to power to probe this issue and who is capable of mobilizing immediate assistance for the victims. But, she has done very little, or probably nothing."

Sita added that in some rape cases victims were entitled to have legal representatives, support and professional help in medical and psychological fields when they report their case to crisis centers or the police.

"This requires a lot of money and a lot of human resources which we, non-profit organizations and humanitarian activists, don't have. The minister of women's roles can actually provide needed facilities, if she is willing to do so," Sita said.

More importantly, Ratna said, the minister should be able to convince her colleagues that rape and other violence against women were not just a "sad effect of the riots", but real problems faced by women in their daily lives.