By LOURDES CHARLES
KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesian police yesterday denied allegations of widespread rapes during the May 13 and 14 riots in the country.
The republic's police chief, Lt. Gen. Roesmanhadi, said reports in foreign media, including those circulated on the Internet were blown out of proportion.
"I will not deny there could have been several rapes. But not as many as rumoured. There are pictures on the Internet showing rape victims."
"And it looks like they were doctored to cause chaos and disunity among Indonesians," he said after paying a courtesy call on Inspector-General of Police, Tan Seri Abdul Rahim Noor at Bukit Aman yesterday.
Also present was Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Norian Mai.
Gen. Roesmanhadi said a special team headed by his CID chief had been formed to investigate the matter and also find out who had spread rumours of widespread rapes.
To a question, he said no Malaysians were raped or injured during the riots.
Gen. Roesmanhadi said Indonesian police had reminded their NGO's to present facts instead of spreading lies.
He said any NGO caught spreading false information abroad would be questioned.
In JOHOR BARU, HAMDAN RAJAH ABDULLAH reports that Indonesia has called on individuals and groups in the state capital with information on the alleged sexual assaults to help in investigations.
The Indonesian consulate in Johor Baru said Indonesia had decided to organise public and private sector investigations into the alleged rapes.
Its first secretary, Kenssy Ekaningsih, said there could be individuals here with relatives in Indonesia who could provide some information.
She said Indonesia had set up a task force comprising prominent public figures and representatives from NGO's to collect and evaluate reports on the incident.
"The task force headed by Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights vice-chairman, Marzuki Darusman, will make recommendations to the government on steps to bring those responsible to justice," she said.