July 15th, 1998

By Columnist David Lawrence Dewey

This just in from my source in Indonesia. In Jakarta Indonesia on July 14th, 20 women who were targeted to the 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.

The activists from Volunteers of Humanity state they have solid evidence of at least 168 rapes of women and children dating back to the riots that broke out in May 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. Led by the Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi, the group visited the National Human Rights yesterday to present the report which gave grisly and explicit details of the rapes. The Volunteers of Humanity further state that 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. 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.

Based on the interviews with victims, their realtives and witnesses, most of the attacks happened in North and West Jakarta where a large ethnic Chinese community lives and works. Many of the survivors, relatives of the victims, witnesses, doctors, hospitals as well as the volunteers had received the 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 the sadistics and uncivilized acts. The human rights comission last week put the blame squarely on the government for security lapses that allowed the rapes and sexual assaults to become wide spread. It has also demanded a public apology from the government for its failure to protect the people.

A teenage girl who was found dead on Jl Pegangsaan II in kelapa gading , North Jakarta, has been identified as Layla Juliawati, an 11 years old Chinese Indonesia girl. Parents and relatives of the murdered girl collected her body for cremation from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital yesterday. None of the family were willing to talk to journalist, but hospital staff revealed that Layla's parents live on Jl Kerajinan in Taman Sari, West Jakarta. A forensic expert in the hospital, Agus Purwadianto, said the cause of death might have been strangulation. "judging from the bruises around her neck, we believe that she was strangled by her killer," he said on Monday. Agus, who examined Layla's body, also disclosed that the girl had suffered a serious sexual assault. Meanwhile, in contradictory development, Kelapa Gading police said yesterday that they were still in the dark about the indentity of the dead girl. Kelapa Gading Suprecint chief Capt. Asep Suhendar said that four families had reported loved ones missing and were anxious to view the body for identification. "We're currently cross checking the data and hopefully we'll then get some leads," Asep said. Jakarta Police Spokesman Lt. Col E. Aritonang confirmed this report, saying that the police were still trying to gather more information. "We cannot rush things in this kind of matter. What if it turned out that the body was given to the wrong family for burial ?", he added.

The mass murder and rape of children and women in Indonesia is occurring at at an alarming rate. The government of Indonesia is doing nothing about it, nor is the American government voicing a complaint to the violation of human rights in Indonesia. This is information is probably being surpressed because of the civil unrest in Indonesia that can have further financial impact on other countries worldwide. Indonesia has become the place for large corporations worldwide to build manufacturing plants because of cheap labor. The International Monetary Fund has great influence in this area because of the bail outs that it is trying to do with the Asian/Japan financial crisis. Combine this civil unrest with this ethnic cleansing using mass murder and when this type of news gets out would have dire consequences on many stock markets across the world. You would be surprized how many U.S. major corporations have plants in Indonesia. When will the American government react to this inhuman atrocity and demand and end to end with the Indonedian government. If you want to help, I urge you to write the White House and your Congressmen about these atrocities.