Jl. Arus Dalam No.1, Rt.001/Rw.012 Cawang, Dewi Sartika,

Jakarta 13630, INDONESIA

Tel./Fax: (021) 8094531, Email: galih@ indo.net.id

This is not a made up story, but a true story. It is only one of hundreds of rapes that happened during the riots on May, 1998. The vastness of the rape, according to the reports filed until today, are shown in various tables and testimonies in this very "Document"... After the riot then came out some statements that denied the fact of the rape. Well, it is better to silence the statements. The answer is clear already: the rapes did happen. And this happened to not only one or two, but to many women and girls.

Probably some government officials likely to hold their old play: try going to cover the case up as if it never happened since there is no report at all on the savage rape during the riots. It is an easy thing to explain:

First of all, in this country, "having been raped" is a condition, which is considered shameful, or even a defect. That is why for sure the victim and their families try not to reveal what happened to them.

Second, since the physical and psychological suffering is very unbearable, the victims and the witnesses can only tell, although with difficulties, to the persons whom they trust. The fact that there is no report at all made to the government shows that until now the government has not yet been considered trustworthy by the people with such a problem.

Third, to many rape cases during the riots, the rapists also took the victims’ KTP (The Identity Card). And this decreased the possibility of the victims to complain and make reports. They have been silenced by their feelings of "disgrace", by terror or threat.

Lastly,, the members of the Volunteers Team for Humanity ("Tim Relawan"), who have been often contacted by the victims and the witnesses, many times get warnings not to continue their activities of "listening" and "helping" the victims. In this very country, even in the (supposed-to-be) reformation spirit, speaking about and listening sympathetically to the victims of the rapes is still considered a threat (to the state-nation? or to some official elements?). Even in the (supposed-to-be) reformation condition, seeking the truth has been accused of being a subversive activity. So we do not need to question why the international community halfheartedly counts on Indonesia, as if they are watching a group of barbaric creatures. Please do not ask why the investments from abroad have not yet come to Indonesia.

From the "absence" of the reports of the rapes to the government, we cannot conclude that the rape itself never happened. This "Early Documentation No. 3" precisely shows how vast the rapes mere during the riots. A single act of raping has been enough to be considered inhuman. Hundreds of rapes with similar brutal modus operandi were absolutely "systematic and organized massive uncivilized acts". The modus operandi were very similar to the ones that stimulated the riots on the middle May 1998. (Vide "The Early Documentation No.1 & 2).

In the series of the systemic and organized rapes, as a nation we are facing the following phenomena:

1. A total destruction of the life condition of the woman in our society. All the ethical principles agree that the highest value of living together is the human soul (persona). Under this is animal, and then matter (res.). It is impossible to live together without acknowledging and carrying out this moral principle. The series of the systemic and organized rape is clearly to be the total destruction of the most respected principle that makes possible our living together. Persona has been violated and been considered as res. This is the politics destroying living together.
2. There is one way to repair this total destruction: by applying the hierarchical moral principle above. It means that we have to put the women, the victims (personae), which have been considered as "things", on their dignity as personae... That is the urgency to help the victims as soon as possible, and not first to debate politically. The fact of the rape that many Chinese people had to suffer does not make it legal and acceptable. Rape is rape. An it destroys persons... Rape is not acceptable for anyone, Either Chinese or Javanese or Dayak or Irianese. Any government in this country with a conscience cannot avoid this urgent agenda to repair the total destruction.
3. From the modus operandi of the rape, filed until today, it is clear that the series of the rapes have a relationship with the destruction and the burning down of the buildings during the riots in middle May, 1998. As it is clear in Table 3 below, the series of rapes were carried out systematically and they were well organized, just like the riot. We civilians of this country demand the revelation of the network of the think tank and actors of the tragedies.
4. The revelation of the think tanks and actors of these activities is very urgent. While (a) the help and the direct assistance for the victims are being carried out, and (b) the volunteers who are helping them get security assurance, (c) the revealing of the mass rapists becomes a key for reforming our living together. It is not merely a juridical must, but also includes all urgent significance to the future. Without this, then, the government is legalizing the "rape" as the only way of how the politics in this country is carried out. Without revealing the network of the actors of the destruction, burning down, rape, the government is legalizing the destruction, the usage of criminals or the hired gangsters as the only way in the political practice in this country. So in the future history, we and our children will not be able to distinguish what is "good" and what is "not good" anymore, "civilized" and "uncivilized", in our lives together.
5. We write down this "Documentation" not to involve ourselves in the political intrigue and competition, but as a step that a lot of people of goodwill want, so that the net-work of the systemic and organized rape is uncovered. This "Documentation" is also our "nightmare" of the savage tragedy in this nation. Every effort to silence this demand of revealing the events denies the fact of the rapes. Since rapes did happen, stopping the publication of the fact means is a big lie and even criminal. To the victims, the rapes have destroyed their lives. To the ordinary civilians and the eyewitnesses, the uncivilized acts become unbearable memories.

For many eyewitnesses, the border between "seeing" and "experiencing" is obscured, and so is the difference between "self" and "victim".

The phenomenon shows how the effect of the rapes has been so far destructive to the inner life and daily life of so many people. This is a total destruction of our living together.

So the events have been internalized by some groups of people with the imagination that is most sadistic and inhuman:

That is an example of the destruction of the imagination on our living together.

The extent of the rapes during the riots May, 1998, was not the result of fantasies. In this "Documentation", the place and the moment of the rapes can be recognized. The number of the victims will be mentioned as far as the data filed until the day this "Documentation" is written down. The similar patterns in the modus operandi of the rapes also gave a strong indication that the events have involved the network of planning, the think tanks and actors which are systematic and well organized.

Table 1 shows the extent of the places where the rapes and the sexual abuses took place in Jakarta and the surroundings. Note the pattern. If the riot, the massive destruction and burning in May 1998 happened in all areas of Jakarta, the rapes only happened in West Jakarta, North Jakarta, and the other areas where the Chinese are concentrated to live and to work. We intentionally show this pattern so that we may note it.

In a shorter description, the concentration of the areas where the rapes and the sexual abuse happened appears in the following picture. It is clear that the rapes and the sexual abuse were concentrated in West Jakarta, North Jakarta, and other locations around Jakarta.

What to conclude from the pattern of the areas of the rape above? First, the rapes and the sexual abuse happened in the areas of the riots where destruction, burning, and massive deaths happened (Vide "The Early Documentation No. 1 & 2). Second, the pattern clearly shows that the rapes and sexual abuses were directed to the Chinese. This phenomenon can be identified with the identity of the victims filed by "the Volunteers Team" even until today.

As mentioned above, the rapes and riots happened at the same time. The patterns of the rapes were very similar to the modus operandi used in the riot. The similarity suggests that there must be a relationship between the two tragedies.

The characteristic of the rapes could be found in so many rapes and sexual abuse. One of them reads below:

As we mentioned at "Preparatory Document No. 2", the actors of the incident came from unknown places. They are different from the native residents. In some cases, victims could be saved from the rapes by local residents:

Below are the examples of the rapes and mass sexual abuse: what they did, and the indication of the ones who did.

The wide range of mass raping can be proven by the numbers of victims, relatives, friends, and witness as who told the stories secretly and sadly. From the very confidential report, we could collect the numbers of rape victim and sexual abuses. All of them are shown at Table 4. Among the victims, 20 died. The other ones physically and psychologically now are in very bad condition. Till July 3, 1998, there are 168 persons who told that they got mass raping and sexual abuse (152 persons are from Jakarta and its environs, 16 persons from Solo, Medan, Palembang, and Surabaya).

The numbers as we see at Table 4 are not the total numbers of the victims. Those are ones who had reported the incident until July 3, 1998.

The statistics above are numbers mainly and do not record the threats, terror, persecution, sadness, tears, fear and loneliness of the victims. For the victims, the families and the witnesses unbearable memories remain.

When many volunteers started helping by paying attention and listening to the victims, they were terrorized and threatened. How can justice and the truth be found in this country?

Since the victims got sympathy, funds, and volunteers who want to listen to them, the terror and intimidation happened to them, to their relatives, to the Chinese, to the hospital staff and the doctors who treated them, also to the volunteers. The characteristics of terror and intimidation are shown on Table 5 below:

Facing all the terrors and threats, there is one movement happening among the people. Since all of the riots and the rape, there are more and more people feel that they should investigate and find the network of the architects and actors of the riot and the rapes. These people come from many backgrounds: religion, age groups, ethnic, social status. They have one goal, the disclosure of the architects and actors of the riots and the rapes. This network is a "public crime" and the architects and the actors are "public criminals". Also there are more people who do not only feel, but also give anything they can give for these humanity efforts. We can conclude this movement as an aspiration and striving of so many people in the society for justice and the truth..

After considering the rapes and sexual abuse as described above, now where are we to go? What steps can we take? This question is without any official statement quality, though, but with great urgency. There are some directions we can take:

More than just any political intrigue, we are facing hundreds of the rapes and sexual abuse victims. As described above, nowadays the victims are absolutely in poor condition: physical and genital organs damaged, very bad physical pain, psychoneurosis, temptation to commit suicide, living in fear and desperation. One thing we can do for them is to have an: I-do-care-attitude, i.e. emphatic and efforts to enhance their hope for the future.

The government and civilians must wholeheartedly help the people and help them with people they ran trust. To do this, let us consider the following:

Whether the security body will help or not, we are the civilians will continue to elaborate our effort to protect each other in helping the victims. To all businessmen and managers, all white collar and laborers, doctors and nurses, intellectuals and activists, this very effort is a real step to our longings for what we call the civil society. The heart of the civil society is civility... So the uncivilized, systematic, and organized rapes is absolutely a negation and a total destruction of civility, the very heart of the civil society.

What can we do to make up "the total destruction of our living together"? While we help the victims and efforts to stop the terror, one thing we can do together is to uncover the network of think tanks and actors for the rape and sexual abuse.

First, if poverty is the root, all societies that have been living in this condition must experience a long, long tragedy of rape (let’s say: Germany, Nigeria, Turky, India, Japan, Philippine, or Peru), since those societies also have groups of people living in poverty like Indonesia. The fact that those societies have no tragedy of rape, as Indonesia does, shows that there is no causal relationship between "poverty" and "rape".

If poverty is the root of the phenomenon, even on a large scale, second, the in silentio argument puts the poor as the only participants the rape and sexual abuse. It is not only absurd, but also has moral superiority arrogance of those who are not-poor towards to poor. What this very argument will show is a certain ideology that the poor are the only scapegoat. On the contrary, the fact shows that many victims (or victims-to-be) were saved by civilians, most of them of the poor.

Last, the argument that "poverty is the root of the phenomenon" is also an escapist argument: looking for other distantly related reasons. Perhaps this kind of argument sounds logical on a TV debate show or in a seminar forum, in viewing the urgency of the tragedy.

Now, those contra-arguments do not say that "poverty" is a great problem in this country. It is! But putting poverty as the only reason of the tragedy is escapism. It is more urgent than a debate of how poverty relates to the tragedy that we are to uncover the network of the think tanks and actors of the systemic tragedy.

The inseparable relationship between the think tanks and actors of both the riots and the rape is not a made-up story, and so is the term "the network of the think tanks" not. The facts of the systemic and organized plan and operation leads us to the conclusion.

This systemic and organized plan has already been the attitude of some groups in our society:

Or,

Or else,

Again, after the riots of May 1998, the collective attitudes are just like the ones before and after the riots among some people.

After considering the network of "the plan and the think tanks" let us discuss about the network of "the operation and the actors"... Again, Table 3 has shown both of the networks. One pattern that distinguished them is that the rape and sexual abuse clearly pointed to Chinese women of the Chinese housings and business area. (Vide the Table 1 and the Diagram). This specific selection of the area and target proves that there must be a systemic and organized network of plan and operation behind it.

The plan and the modus operandi of the riot and the rapes unquestionably involved the systemic and organized networks. Just like the riot that was not by accident, so was the rapes. Table 6 below will show the parallel of the inseparable patterns of both of the networks

Source: "Volunteers Team for Humanity" documentation, from the testimonies of the victims, their family and friends, and also from the eyewitnesses, May-June 1998.

Table 6 shows clearly how any accidental-factor-theory by no means can explain the fact of the riot and the rapes, (Cfr. "Early Documentation No. 1 and No. 2).

If both the riots and the rapes were merely by accident,

1) how can it explain the facts of the widespread tragedy and the great number of victims?

2) how can it explain the simulacrum (in the same time) phenomenon of most of the tragedies?

3) how can it explain the similarity of their modus operandi?

4) how can it explain the fact that both have the same target, i.e. the Chinese?

Those 4 questions are central to our point of view. Every single statement that says that all those tragedies were merely by accident has no evidence nor logic at all. The causality of the rapes and the riot is the result of the network of organized, systemic, and patterned plan and operation. So it involves the think tanks and the actors of the network.

Now, the next step is the revelation. These aspirations and demands are from many groups of our society: businessmen-women, international community, farmers, labors and white-collars, intellectuals and activists, public servants and the poor, children and students.

The patterns and the evidence are clear. Now, there is an unbearable question to answer: what to do with the net work of he think tanks and actors of the rapes (and the riot)? Just forget and shelve it? Or, together we have to uncover it?

To forget it means to shelve it. No difference. But how can we forget such thing if the tragedy already has been an unforgettable gray episode in the life of the victims, their families and relatives, the eyewitnesses and all of us? How can we forget such thing if it already has been a nightmare: part of the fear and trauma, of the depression and loneliness and desperation, and even part of the most inhuman fantasy of some of us? All those phenomenon already are data (happened) and facta (done). Our personal and communal lives are not only based on high salaries or GNP figures, but also on memories, whatever the memories contain.

For now, then, we are living in a nightmare of the rapes and the destruction. First of all, we have testimony that the rapes and the massive destruction did happen. Second, we testimony that hundreds of the victims of the tragedies are part of the uneraseable gray episode of the political history and of our way of living together in this very country. Lastly, we also have testimony that the tragedies have already blurred (even have destroyed) the difference between the "good" and the "no-good" things, "civilized" and "uncivilized" in our society . And this is an undeniable sign of a total destruction of the life of this very nation.

It is clear that forgetting and shelving these brutal tragedies is not more than merely an escapism. It is just like using anesthetics. After the anesthetizing effect has gone, other brutal tragedies will follow one after another. Then we are living through these chains of brutality. There will be bloodshed, and other victims will be lining up.

That is why we and all people of goodwill are demanding that the network of the think tanks and actors of the rapes and the destruction be uncovered. Every single politician, or party, or group, or political process that does not adapt this urgent agenda for humanity is not more than a power broker that has no ear to the wide range aspirations of the civilians. It is not only in the name of "justice", but the revelation also becomes a key step to reforming the difference between "good" and "evil", "civilized" and "uncivilized", in our living together. But literally we are to say that there is no public crime without any public criminal. Now, the investigation especially must be directed to:

1. The network of rapes and massive destruction that obviously has certain patterns, is systemic and organized.
2. The network of the operation of rapes and massive destruction that obviously has certain patterns, is systemic and organized.
3. The planners of the rapes and the massive destruction, whether they are of government body, of the armed forces (ABRI), of any exclusive syndicate, of groups of bandit or hired gangsters, or of any other group in the society.
4. The actors of the rapes and destruction, whether they are of the government body, of the armed forces (ABRI), of any exclusive syndicate, of groups of bandit or hired gangsters, or of any other group the society.

A systemic and organized "public crime" only can be coped with by a systemic and organized "public anti-crime"... So the investigation only can work if there is a network of all: the victims and the eyewitnesses, any civilian and the leaders of the government body, groups of religious men and women from any religion, groups of volunteers for humanity, experts and common people, labors and students, groups of any association and government elements.

To those who are in the government body, all of you have special interest in the tragedies, precisely because you consider yourselves the managers for our life in this nation-state. Especially to the leaders of the armed forces, all of you have special interest in the tragedies, because you consider yourselves the managers for the security of our life in this nation-state. All of you can contribute significant help to the investigation.

We do know that all of you smartly and strictly keep an eye on, investigate, and spy on anything and anybody: from the lives of the laborers to the vendors’, the student activities to the retired generals’, from the discussion-groups to the activists for humanity’s, from the published books to any meeting. For decades you are expert in these. There is no activity in the society that can escape your monitors. And it has been an enduring pattern: complicated bureaucracies, the arrest of those whom you dislike.

If your expertise in these matters and alike has been proven so far, then, you should easily recognize and find the network of the think tanks and actors of the rapes and the destruction on May 1998. Well, perhaps some of you cannot see the plank in your eyes. But for sure this is not true for thousands of you who are in charge of the security of this very nation and state. Many of you must know exactly the network.

This "Documentation" is not only out of our deep concerns, but also we hope that this one will be useful to all of you. It is clear that the pattern, the operation, and the modus operandi of the tragedies are systemic and organized and involve many planners and actors, as you can read in this "Documentation". (Vide Early Documentation No. 1 & 2).

Please feel free to use all the documents, while groups in the society are doing our best in helping the victims. You know that there are more and more people wait to see your significant help in uncovering the network of the rapes and the massive destruction.

If not, please do not blame us that there are more and more people believe that many "government" and "security" elements are useless. Or, perhaps they still work but they agree to or even have involvement the tragedies.

To all civilians, the government, the armed forces, and to the children of the future generation of our history, we are handing the "Documentation" in; in order to re-learn about the differences between what’s "civilized" and "uncivilized"; in order that our children and grand children re-learn the differences between what "good" and "no-good" are for our life together.

Jakarta, July 13th, 1998

Volunteers team for Humanity

Secretary