The following are some quotes from major news agencies, like BBC, CNN, and
Reuters. Accounts reported by New York Times are following the quotes.
"During the riot in May in Indonesia, 1188 people were killed or raped to
death. 4083 shops were burned down to earth. 1020 houses were burned or
destroyed. More than 100 women in age from 10 to 55 were raped."
-- Indonesia National Human Rights Commission
June 6
"Human rights and women's aid groups have begun to document what they say
appears to have been an organized campaign of assaults, gang rapes and
killings of ethnic Chinese women during three days of rioting in Jakarta
last month."
"The aid workers say they have talked with dozens of victims or relatives of
victims, and they estimated on Tuesday that more than 100 women and girls may
have been attacked and raped in Jakarta alone as their neighborhoods were
burning between May 13 and 15. There were reports of similar attacks during
riots in other cities that preceded the fall of President Suharto on May 21."
"The reports involve girls and women ranging in age from 10 to 55."
"Some of the rapers said, 'You must be raped because you are Chinese and
NON-MUSLIM, Now I have to give you a lesson. You are a woman and you are
beautiful and you are part of the Chines'. Then they chose the beautiful
women among the Chinese and raped them inside the bus."
"Albert Hasibuan, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights,
said human rights workers had talked with a participant in the riots who
said he had been recruited, briefed, paid and transported by unidentified
men, who provided him and others with stones and gasoline bombs. The
commission is the official government human-rights monitoring agency."
-- By Seth Mydans, New York Times
June 23
"Reports are beginning to emerge that hundreds of women
and girls of Chinese descent were raped during the riots that
swept over Indonesia last month."
"A number of victims have said that the men who raped them
had crew cuts and tattoos and that they seemed to be
drugged, or drunk."
"... the rioters would attack houses, rape the younger women,
burn the house, and then move on to the next house."
"Girls as young as 11 were targeted, and were often raped in front
of their families by as many as 10 men."
"... the Chinese women had become victims of what looked like a campaign of
mass rape."
"... many of the ethnic Chinese are Christian, and it was at church that they
first overcame their shame and spoke about what happened."
"A doctor at the hospital said that she knew of at least 400
cases of rape."
"In one incident 68 Chinese women and girls were raped by groups of as many
as 10 men..."
-- BBC
"Activist groups estimate more than 100 rapes took place, many in a
frighteningly systematic fashion, targeting women in the ethnic Chinese
minority."
"The gang rapes took on a disturbingly similar pattern throughout Jakarta
on May 14 as rioters took control of most of the city of 10 million in the
worst violence in the capital in decades."
"The rioters would attack houses, rape the younger women, burn the house,
and move on to the next house, the activists said."
"one woman killed herself by drinking insecticide after she was raped in
front of her husband and children in the Chinatown district of North
Jakarta."
--JAKARTA, Reuters
June 28
"Human rights groups...are documenting what they believe was an
organized campaign of racially motivated assaults, gang-rapes
and killings of ethnic Chinese during the riots."
"it was the homes and businesses of the ethnic Chinese that were
targeted during the riots."
"Tan Guan Tjai told CNN he lost his entire family to the violence.
His wife and two daughters were burned alive as they hid from the
angry mob, Tan said."
--JAKARTA, CNN
June 29
"Indonesia's military chief said ... there was no proof ethnic Chinese
women were raped in riots..."
"Several womens' groups and non-governmental organisations have said more
than 100 women were raped during the riots that ravaged Jakarta on May 13 and
14."
"To date, the police have not arrested a single person in connection with the
alleged rapes."
--JAKARTA, Reuters, By Amy Chew
July 9
"..there had been systematic rapes during the May 12-14 riots and up
until a week ago in Jakarta and other cities."
"The brutal exploitations were demonstrated in the middle of a crowd of
looting masses and the majority who were targeted were clearly women and
female children of ethnic Chinese descent," Komnas Ham member Saparinah
Sadli said in a statement.
"Among the saddest cases reported were the acts of rape which were
committed in front of the family," she said.
"...more than a 100 women were raped during the Jakarta riots, which claimed
around 2,000 lives..."
--JAKARTA, Reuters
July 11
"During the riots, ... , mobs attacked Chinese homes and
businesses..."
"Some victims testified that they had been raped in front
of their parents."
"A number had been hospitalized, many had been
traumatized, and at least one later committed suicide."
"human rights groups have said they documented some 100 cases
of rape during the unrest."
"the National Human Rights Commission described the pattern of
rapes as 'systematic'."
--JAKARTA, Associated Press
July 14
"...20 people died after being raped during mid-May riots in the capital
Jakarta and other cities."
"Sandyawan Sumardi, secretary of the Volunteers of Humanity, told Reuters
he had spoken personally to 12 rape victims and dozens of eyewitnesses."
"'Our organisation has received 162 reports of rape,' he said in an
interview."
"Seventeen people died after being raped during riots on May 13-14, and
three died later..."
"Nine of the victims were abandoned in burning buildings after being raped...
Two committed suicide, some died on the spot and others in hospital..."
"Data compiled for the report shows that the rapes followed a set pattern,
suggesting they were organised and premeditated..."
"most of the victims were ethnic Chinese, and that assailants often arrived
in trucks with a few of the young men apparently taking charge."
"Some in the group looted shops while others assaulted women and in some
cases girls as young as nine, often forcing relatives to watch."
"...according to victims and witnesses, the physical traits of
the assailants resembled those of security forces."
"About 1,200 people died during riots..., targeting primarily ethnic
Chinese..."
--JAKARTA, Reuters
"Chinese Rape Victims Murdered or Left For Dead During May Riots"
"An Indonesian human rights group has alleged that 20 women died after they
were raped, along with more than 100 others during recent riots."
"... 20 rape victims were murdered by their assailants, left to die in
burning
buildings or later died of wounds inflicted when they were attacked."
"... a 9-year-old girl who was raped by a gang that mutilated her genitals.
She died several days later in a Singapore hospital."
"East Asia Today presenter, Christopher Gunness, asked Carlina Luksona, of
Volunteer for Humanity, what the evidence was:
"... this happened very systematically and there's a specific pattern in
different areas.
"... the riots always started with the arrival of two buses or two trucks,
and then they loaded the people. These people asked the local people to loot
the stores or the houses of the Chinese. After the people went inside their
stores and looted their things, these people went out and burnt the buildings
or the houses.
"... The rape victims were all Chinese.
"... two girls who were sisters, one of them twelve years old and the other
fourteen, were being raped, each of them by five people in front of their
sisters. After they raped these girls, they pushed them into a fire."
-- BBC
"Volunteers for Humanity said that it had received more than
160 reports of rapes from the start of the rioting in May until
early this month."
-- BBC
July 15
"The national human rights commission has said about 1,200 people were
killed in the riots which rocked Jakarta on May 13-14. Hundreds of
buildings and thousands of vehicles were set on fire and scores of women,
mostly from the ethnic Chinese minority, were raped."
"Human rights groups have said the violence was organised and systematic
and that they fear any government investigation will be flawed. The
national human rights commission last week demanded an independent
investigation."
-JAKARTA, Reuters
July 16
"The Chinese,...,have been traditional targets for attack during times
of hardship."
"Chinese property was looted and burned in Jakarta and other cities..."
"...human rights groups say nearly 170 Chinese women were systematically
targeted for rape, of whom about 20 subsequently died."
--JAKARTA, Reuters
July 20
"Angry mobs in Indonesia's East Java have attacked shops and homes
owned by Moslems they accuse of supporting ethnic Chinese traders..."
"...more ethnic Chinese were reported fleeing amid fears of further
violence..."
"about 200 people drove through the Mumbulsari, ... , threatening
Moslem leaders who had expressed concern over recent attacks on Chinese."
"...the crowd set three shops belonging to Moslems on fire..."
"One Moslem preacher in the district said mobs of people from outside
the district attacked his house late on Sunday, accusing him of supporting
Chinese rather than Moslems."
-- SURABAYA, Reuters
July 22
"Several women's groups and non-governmental
organisations have said more than 160 women were
raped during riots in Jakarta and other centres in the
middle of May which helped force Suharto to resign as
president on May 21."
"Human rights groups have said the violence was
organised and systematic, targeted specifically at
women of ethnic Chinese origin."
"President B.J. Habibie
said on Wednesday Indonesia would establish an
independent commission on violence against women to
investigate rape cases during riots in May and prevent a
recurrence."
"The groups have expressed fears that any government
investigations would be flawed and the official National
Human Rights Commission has demanded an
independent investigation."
-- JAKARTA, Reuters
The following accounts were compiled by Seth Mydans of New York Times:
1. A student was abducted at a bus stop, taken to a swamp near the airport
and raped by four men in a car. There was a green uniform in the car
and she asked her abductors if they were police officers. "If you are
police, you have to save me," she told them, according to Ms. Ita. One
of them answered: "No, I have to give you a lesson. You are a woman and
you are beautiful and you are part of the Chinese."
2. In the midst of the riot, a group of men stopped a city bus and forced
out all the non-Chinese women. "Then they chose the beautiful women
among the Chinese and raped them inside the bus," Sandiyawan said. "The
victims of that incident are really depressive. They are in the
hospital with their families. They are trying to hide themselves from
the public."
3. A 10-year-old girl returning from school discovered that the shop-house
where her family lived and worked had been burned. As she went in
search of her parents, she was seized by two men and raped in front of
her neighbors.
4. One woman, a bank officer, told a local reporter that she was seized
from the back of a motorcycle in the middle of the riot and thrown to
the ground by a group of men. "She told me she was so hysterical and
she was so panicked that she does not remember what happened," the
reporter said. "But she showed me a lot of bruises on her body,
especially on her legs."
5. In an incident of public humiliation, a group of about 15 men entered a
bank where 10 ethnic Chinese employees were taking refuge from the
riot. The men locked the door, made the women take off their clothes
and ordered them to dance. In a similar incident during a riot in the
city of Medan on May 4, 20 female students at a teacher training
college were stopped by police officers when they tried to flee the
violence on their campus. The officers forced them to take off their
clothes and perform calisthenics. In both cases, the women reported
that they were fondled but not raped. In another incident of harassment
during the riot in Jakarta, a number of ethnic Chinese women were
reportedly stripped and made to swim in a pond.
6. Ms. Ita told of an ethnic Chinese woman who hid in her house with her
two younger sisters as the rioters approached. About 10 men came into
the house and found the sisters on the third floor. They made the two
younger women take off their clothes and told the older sister to stand
in a corner, "because you are too old for us."
Meanwhile, arsonists entered the lower floors and set fire to the
building. "After they had raped her two sisters, the two men said to
her, 'We are finished and we are satisfied and because you are too old
and ugly we weren't interested in you.' So they took her two sisters
and pushed them to the ground floor where there was already fire, and
they were killed.