Subject: Probe Urged into Murder of Indonesia Rape Worker
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 22:20:41 EDT
From: Bm4486@aol.com
To: petertee@paclink.net
Probe Urged into Murder of Indonesia Rape Worker
Reuters
12-OCT-98
JAKARTA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A U.S.-based human rights group on Monday urged an investigation into whether the murder of an 18-year-old Indonesian woman was part of a campaign to terrorize volunteers probing gang rapes during riots in Jakarta in May.
Martadinata Haryono, known as Ita, was found at her house on Friday evening with her throat slit and multiple stab wounds to her body. Police arrested a 20-year-old neighbor and said the motive for the killing was robbery.
But Human Rights Watch said in a statement a flill and independent investigation was needed into whether the killing was linked to Martadinata's work with the Volunteer Team for Humanity.
The team is an Indonesian agency which has been investigating the alleged systematic gang rape of scores of ethnic Chinese Indonesians.
Martadinata and her mother, both ethnic Chinese, had worked with the team, which has reported repeated threats over recent months demanding it end its investigations.
"Members of the Volunteer Team have been called in the middle of the night and warned to stop investigating the rapes. Their children have also been the target of threats and obscene phone calls,
" Human Rights Watch said.
"The explosiveness of the rape issue and of the Volunteer Team for Humanity's work makes it imperative that this case be handled with extreme sensitivity," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.
"It's also critical that any lead or strand of evidence suggesting a link to the work of either the victim or her mother with the rape investigations be fully and impartially explored."
The group called for better protection for members of the team and said the government also had an obligation to investigate the threats and intimidation they had faced in recent months.
Newspapers said the murdered woman had been preparing to leave for the United States with her mother and alleged victims of the rapes to publicize their cause.
They said there was speculation that Martadinata had herself been a victim of the May rapes.
Police said there was no evidence to link the murder to investigations into the May rapes.
"Many say that Ita was one of the rape victims, but please don't listen to what they say unless they can give me evidence on it," Jakarta police chief Major-General Noegroho Djajoesman was quoted as
saying by the Jakarta Post.
In a July report, the Volunteer Team for Humanity said 130 women were raped during the riots, which erupted in Jakarta in mid-May.
Some Indonesian officials have disputed the rape reports-- armed forces chief General Wiranto has repeatedly said no evidence has been found to support claims of widespread rapes.
In a report last month, Human Rights Watch said the number of verifiable rape cases was likely to fall below the 130 originally reported, "perhaps even substantially below," but the fact sexual assaults took place against ethnic Chinese was not disputed.
Almost 1,200 people died in the Jakarta riots, mostly looters trapped in burning buildings. The violence added to the pressure that toppled former President Suharto, who resigned on May 21 amid economic and social chaos.
Indonesia's ethnic Chinese are frequent targets for mob violence in Indonesia, partly due to their perceived wealth. Thousands fled the country in the wake of the May riots.
