Indonesia Rape Counselor Found Dead

Wahington Post October 10, 1998
By Thomas Wagner
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, October 10, 1998; 9:58 a.m. EDT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A teen-age activist who was counseling women raped during Indonesia's riots in May was found stabbed to death in her home, police said today.

The body of 17-year-old Martadinata Haryono, a high school senior, was found in her bedroom Friday night by her father. She had stab wounds and a slashed neck.

Several activists helping the victims or investigating the cases have complained that they have received death threats.

But Maj. Gen. Pol Noegroho Djajoesman, the chief of Jakarta police, was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying that police have no evidence that the slaying was connected to her work.

Police said Haryono was the first volunteer to be killed and that her home in downtown Jakarta was not robbed. It was not known if she had received threats.

Antara quoted the doctor who conducted the autopsy as saying that preliminary examinations showed signs of a sexual assault.

``There were 10 wounds on her body and her head was almost cut off at the throat,'' Dr. Mun'im Idris was quoted as saying.

Police refused to comment on the report.

Haryono and her mother, Wiwin, worked for Volunteers for Humanity, one of several groups counseling ethnic Chinese victims of the unrest.

Colleagues said Haryono, who also was ethnic Chinese, was planning to travel to the United States with her mother and some victims prepared to testify about the rapes to a human rights group.

``This was so unfair. We just hope she wasn't killed because she and her mother were helping rape victims,'' said Ester Indahyani Jusuf Lubis, leader of Serambi Nusa Bangsa, a group formed in June to fight racial discrimination in Indonesia.

``People will now be afraid to tell anyone what happened during the riots. This is terrorizing for Indonesia's ethnic Chinese,'' she said.

Human rights groups say at least 168 women, mostly ethnic Chinese, were raped during the unrest, which left 1,200 people dead and led to the resignation of President Suharto.

Volunteers for Humanity was one of the first groups to report that ethnic Chinese women and girls had been gang-raped during the riots.

Dozens of people paid their condolences at Haryono's home today. Haryono's casket sat in one room adorned with flowers, her photograph and a crucifix. Her parents were consoled by friends in an adjoining room.

Indonesia's government set up an independent inquiry into the reported sexual assaults. It confirmed that rapes had taken place during the riots, but it has yet to determine how many.

The military and police have repeatedly said they have no hard evidence that sexual assault was widespread.

``Whatever motivated the killing, we see it as a form of terror against women activists,'' said Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, director of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice. ``The armed forces and police must do more to guarantee our safety.''

IHCC - Indonesian Huaren Crisis Center

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