Distr. GENERAL
E/CN.4/1999/68/Add.3 21 January 1999
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Fifty-fifth session Item 12 (a) of the
provisional agenda
INTEGRATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy
V. RAPE OF ETHNIC CHINESE WOMEN
62. The ethnic Chinese make up 2.8 per cent of the Indonesian population and number around 6 million. / Leo Suryadinata, The Culture of the Chinese Minority in Indonesia, Times Books International, Singapore, 1997./ They are predominantly urban dwellers and, by all accounts, have, as a community, made a significant contribution to the Indonesian economy. The perception among average non-Chinese Indonesians is that the Chinese control the economy in collaboration with Indonesian power elites. Although the Special Rapporteur was repeatedly told that the Chinese were rich and wealthy, many of the victims she met, who had been raped during the May riots, appeared to be from lower-middle-class backgrounds. Some were single women living alone, striving to make ends meet. It appeared that the victims were in fact poor, ordinary women who had very little "control of the economy".
63. Since 1967, the Government of Indonesia has pursued a policy of assimilation with regard to the ethnic Chinese minority. It is important to highlight the framework within which the May riots took place (an issue the Special Rapporteur on racial discrimination will address in greater depth in his report (E/CN.4/1999/15)). The assimilation policy has been contained in government guidelines since 1967. Chinese Indonesians have been asked to change their names to Indonesian ones. Their language schools have been closed and replaced by schools, where Chinese is taught as an extracurricular language. The use of Chinese characters in public has been discouraged and Chinese festivals and rituals are to be celebrated only in the privacy of the home. Chinese Indonesians carry identity cards with special markings to show that they are of Chinese origin / On 16 September 1998, President Habibie issued a presidential decree requiring equal treatment for all Indonesians and banning the use of the words "pribumi" and "non-pribumi" in all welfare formulations, organizations and programmes, and in the implementation of government coordinated activities. "Pribumi", which means "indigenous"
or "native" in the Bahasa Indonesia language is normally understood to exclude persons of Chinese descent. A further welcome development is the recent decision by the Ministry of Home Affairs to stop using special codes on identity cards for Chinese Indonesians./ and Chinese businessmen are encouraged to find "indigenous" Indonesian business partners. However, the Chinese are free to practise the religion of their choice, and many of them are Christians or Buddhists.
64. There are two categories of Chinese in Indonesia. The first, called "Peranakans", are locally born Chinese who have intermarried with Indonesians and speak Bahasa Indonesia. Some of them have become Muslims. The second category are called "Totoks". They are recent migrants who continue to speak Chinese and are more involved in education and business. Both categories of Chinese were targeted during the May 1998 riots.
65. With regard to the May 1998 riots, the Special Rapporteur spoke with victims, witnesses, members of the Chinese community, human rights defenders and NGOs. She also spoke with government officials and representatives of the military and the police. The following conclusions are based on these interviews.
66. On 12 May 1998, four university students were shot dead at Trishakti University during a demonstration. By 14 May, thousands of establishments had burnt to the ground. According to the Volunteers for Humanitarian Causes, 1,190 people were dead in Jakarta and 168 women had been gang raped. According to the police, only 451 people died and there were no cases of gang rape. The Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) was able to interview 85 victims of sexual violence, of whom 52 were victims of rape.
67. The riots followed a pattern. Initially there were rumours threatening violence. Then a group of strangers, described as heavily built and in army boots and armed with crowbars, inflammable liquids and Molotov cocktails would come to a locality in jeeps and on motorcycles. They would incite the populace to riot, assisting them to break into buildings and loot the premises. They would also assist in arson. After some time, they would withdraw. Although both Chinese and non-Chinese died in the arson, the target of the riots was Chinese establishments. With regard to the cases of rape, again it was the Chinese who were the targets. Rape occurred in west and north Jakarta, where there was a concentration of Chinese.
68. The TGPF could not conclude that the riots were systematically planned and instigated, but asked for further investigations, mentioning by name Lt.-Gen. Prabowo, the son-in-law of former President Soeharto, and Major-General Syafrie Syamsoeddin, the chief of army operations in Jakarta. According to witnesses, the perpetrators of the crimes committed were local criminals, some of whom have confessed that they were paid to riot. The witnesses also felt that individuals from the Indonesian army and from some political organizations also took part in the rioting. It is absolutely essential that the perpetrators be brought to trial after proper investigations so that such events do not occur in the future.
69. The Special Rapporteur was shown a video of the riots. She was appalled to see members of the armed forces wearing red berets stand by and watch as the looting and rioting continued. At one time they shared looted drinks with the miscreants, joking and laughing during the chaos One victim described to the Special Rapporteur how she ran out of her house and asked a soldier to help her family. He just turned away. She watched her sisters suffer sexual violence, her brother killed and her house burn to the ground. This type of lawlessness gives impunity to criminal actors and allows for large-scale violations of human rights. All States have a due diligence duty to prevent, prosecute and punish private actors involved in violating the rights of others.
70. The Special Rapporteur asked members of the security forces why they had allowed such lawlessness to prevail. They argued that, after the shooting of the students, they had not wanted any more civilian casualties, so the soldiers had been reluctant to intervene. The inability of the security forces of Indonesia to distinguish between the exercise of the right to free speech and lawful assembly by the students and pure criminal activity by gangs of thugs and looters is extremely worrying and points to the need for intensive human rights training of the Indonesian security forces.
71. Throughout the Special Rapporteur's stay, government officials, as well as individual civilians, inquired whether the so-called mass rapes actually took place since no one was reporting the cases to the police. The Special Rapporteur is firmly convinced that there was mass rape, more often gang rape. It took place in homes, in public places and in workplaces. Although she cannot provide a definite number, the pattern of violence that was described by victims, witnesses and human rights defenders clearly indicated that such rape was widespread.
72. None of the victims with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke had reported their cases to the police. The reasons for this were manifold. Firstly, they had received death threats and anonymous letters warning them not to report the cases. Secondly, they had no confidence in the criminal justice system and were convinced that the police would not do anything to bring the miscreants to trial. Finally, they were afraid that the publicity would result in their being ostracized in their community, where rape carries with it a stigma that is hard to erase. The lack of confidence of the victims in the criminal justice system strikes at the heart of the integrity of the institutions that defend the rule of law. It is important that these institutions regain the confidence of this important element of Indonesian society.
73. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned about the proliferation of death threats and anonymous letters after the May 1988 riots. These threats and letters have been targeted at victims, the families of the victims, doctors and human rights defenders. In the case of human rights defenders, the threat is directed against their children. The threats are delivered by telephone and by letter. In the case of rape victims, photographs of the rape are sent warning
the victim that if she speaks the photographs will be circulated widely. This private thuggery has to be confronted and eliminated. The rule of law must prevail if the criminal justice system in Indonesia is to give relief to victims. There is a need for an effective witness ...
ada diskusi menarik ttg ini di milis budaya tionghoa...
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