Indonesian Attorney General to Probe May Riots

Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has pledged that his office will launch a comprehensive investigation into the May 1998 riots and set a one-week deadline to the National Commission on Human Right (Komnas HAM) to submit the report for further legal action, national newspapers here reported Tuesday.

Darusman also said that the report from the government-appointed team of the Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF) was eligible to be considered a fact-finding report and deserved to be followed up by the attorney general office (AGO).

"I think the final investigation can start in one week provided that the commission submits the report to my office," Darusman was quoted by the papers as saying.

On May 13-15 1998, the country saw the worst looting and rioting in decades in Jakarta, Medan, Solo. It was believed that more than 1,300 lives were claimed in the riots, while thousands of buildings and vehicles were destroyed or set ablaze. The rioters also conducted a wide-spread rape and torture on ethnic Chinese women.

And just one week after the riots took place, Soeharto stepped down from his presidential office and his successor, B.J. Habibie then took office as the country's president until October last year.

The TGPF earlier issued a report confirming that nearly 1,300 people were killed during the riots and 52 women were raped with 14 more falling victim to rape with violence, 10 to sexual attacks, and nine to sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ethnic Chinese Reforms Party (PARTI) put the number of rape victims at 300, including a nine-year-old girl. However, the party regretted that no victim is willing to give testimony for fear of retaliation.

The TGPF then collected data confirming the tragedy from the second-hand information.

After President Abdurrahman Wahid took office in October last year, he decided to open a formal investigation into the alleged rape, but like the previous inquiries which were based on the second hand information, it uncovered scant evidence to support the claims of sexual violence.

But Darusman asserted: "What's in the reports (of TGPF) is all valid." "That is exactly what happened during the May riots," he said, indicating that the human rights tribunal could be used as a basis for a formal investigation by state prosecutors based on the country's regulation No.1/1999.



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