You must be raped because you're Chinese

Subject: "You must be raped because you're Chinese ..."

Subject: indonesian chinese girls who got raped in the riot

Just as you know why we often separated between Indonesian & Chinese, why we're not "that" proud being Indonesian, why most of us don't want to go back to Indo. There are lots of people who don't seem to know or even care about what actually happened on the 14th May 1998 and is still happening to Indonesian Chinese.

The rape cases listed below are REAL. They were NOT MADE UP NOR FICTITIOUS NOR EXAGGERATED. This is the real horror took place in Jakarta, Indonesia between May 13-15, 1998. These cases have been filed and checked for its truth and authenticity by the Volunteer Team for Humanity. The reports of the Volunteer Team have been CONFIRMED by the United Nation Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. However, the Indonesian government has been denying the May rapes all the time

The Testimony of Vivian

A Real Story; a tragedy which took place in Indonesia, 14th May 1998. This is an uncut translation from the original account, which is in Indonesian language.

Source : Newsgroup alt.soc.indonesia.mature

Date : June 12, 1998

From : Peace

_________________________

Hi Netters, Yesterday I got the opportunity to meet with a friend of mine who was one of the victims of the 14th of May disturbances/riots. She lives in an apartment in Pluit.

Name: Vivian (pseudonym)

Age: 18 years

Gender: Female

She has one little sister and one little brother. She lives with her family in this apartment. Around 9:15am the apartment was surrounded by hundreds of people who looked very threatening. They screamed like devils, "Butcher the Chinese", "Let’s eat the pigs", "Let’s party!"

Our family was on the 7th floor. At that time, we were phoned by a family who lived on the third floor, and told that the masses had already gone up to the second floor and furthermore that the occupants were being chased upstairs. We immediately felt afraid, but in that fear we prayed and made pleas to God. After that, we prepared to leave the room, and we went up the stairs to the top floor, because it was no longer possible to go downstairs. We went up to the 15th floor and there we stayed in the room of an acquaintance. It wasn’t long after that we were surprised by a number of people coming out of the lift at the precise moment we went in, so we quickly went in and locked the door.

At that moment we heard the door of another room being pounded on and we could hear many screams coming from women and little girls. At that moment we felt extremely threatened in the room, and we were aware that the room we were in would get its turn, so we immediately dispersed and hid in corners of the room. From inside we could hear the cries of girls from around 10-12 years screaming, "Mummy, mummy", "mum, it hurts..." At that moment I didn’t know what was happening.

After almost half an hour of waiting, when the situation began to abate, and the voices began to recede, we made ourselves have the courage to go and see. And after we left, really what we saw ... cannot be mentioned. We saw many people passed out on the floor, many small children and young girls stretched out ... Oh God ... what had happened ... my little sister (Veny) screamed and screamed hysterically seeing it all, and she flew into my fathers arms. Seeing that, I also cried ...

Eventually, with our friends, a newly wed couple, we went down the stairs. At the tenth floor, numerous screams for help were audible. Because those screams were so clearly heard, we were moved to enter that floor. But at the moment we turned the corner, we were surprised by the large number of people. And I saw with my own eyes a girl of around 20 years being raped by 4 men. She tried to fight but she was restrained.

Seeing that we ran as fast as we could... But calamity... Veny was quickly caught by those people. And my family and I tried to save her but there were about 60 of them. Finally my family, papa, mama, me, Veny and Doni also as well as the husband and wife, Dodi and Vera, were tied up with torn sheets. They carried us into a room. Dodi at that moment had already asked them what they wanted, but they didn’t answer, their appearances were very evil and cruel.

One of them grabbed Veny roughly and dragged her onto the sofa, at that moment I knew that Veny was in danger, and I tried to yell as loud as I could and one of them slapped me, then it was my father who also yelled out and was hit with a wooden beam until he passed out, my mother had already passed out from the moment she saw them drag Veny away. At that moment, I just prayed to God, oh God, don’t let this disaster come upon us... Dodi, who at that moment continued to try to persuade them with offers of money but without success. And...eventually Veny was raped forcibly by them. I couldn’t stand to watch that or hear Veny’s screams, so I cried and closed my eyes tightly... There were about 5 people raping Veny, and every one began with the cry, "Allahu akbar!" ("My god is great")... They are sadists... They are cruel... they appeared furious...

Not long after about another 9 people entered the room and pulled me and I saw Vera also dragged away. At that stage I passed out... and didn’t know what was happening... I woke up at around 5-6pm, with a headache and I only then became aware that I was naked, and then I cried, I felt very ashamed, I remembered that my family were still there, and I saw with blurred vision my father hugging my mother and Doni. I saw Dodi stretched out on the floor, while Vera cried over his body. I didn’t have the strength to arise. I tired eventually and slept again.

The following day I was in the hospital in Pluit. Beside me were my mother and father. Still aching all over, I asked, "Ma... why me, what’s happened to me, ma?" But I felt very sick when I said that. My cheeks felt swollen. My mother straight away started to cry and couldn’t speak. Whereas my father smiled whilst holding back his tears.

I was nursed for about four days before I started to recover. And my father told me what had happened with a sympathetic expression... When I fainted, I was raped by around 7 people, my father couldn’t see clearly because he was dizzy from being hit with a wooden beam. They raped me, turning my body this way and that and ramming me against the wall. And after that, dad said... "Vivian, Veny has gone..." I was confused and didn’t know why I started to cry, and maybe my cries could have even heard outside the room... "Why dad????" He didn’t reply... He told me to rest and left the room. Then I cried and cried as though life had no meaning any more.

Once all that had finished, a week ago, I came home from the hospital to my relative’s house and only then was I told what had happened. Evidently, when Veny was raped, she tried to fight them, and because of that she was repeatedly slapped by those uncouth people, and the final effort Veny made to fight, she spat on one of them. Upset, he took a knife (I don’t know of what sort) and straight away drove the knife into her stomach, and like an animal, brutally, repeatedly slashed the knife into Veny’s stomach, until finally Veny drew her last breath with blood flowing all over her body. When I heard that I went into shock, and dad told me that Dodi had also had the same thing happen to him, and eventually drew his last breath watched by Vera who was also a victim of rape. God.... Why must this happen??? Then Vera was taken by her elder sibling to live at her parents house, and according to the news from her sibling, she is still in shock and has withdrawn into herself, even frequently refusing to eat. And, my mother was also withdrawn. My mother and I until this day, still cry every hour over what happened, and I can not forget that day. Although they are human, their brutality was inhuman.

Fellow netters, while I tell of this, there is much which I cannot say in words, and while I am telling it, I can not stop my tears from flowing. And hearing similar stories from a number of other friends, almost all had the same cries of, "Allahu akbar!" ("My god is great") by those evil people. Do they consider their actions a jihad (holy war)?

To you teachers of Islam, your religion is the religion of the majority, but the good people who have love towards others in your religion are in the minority. However with the religions of Christianity, Buddhism and Hindu, which are minority religions, the good people who have love for one another are of the majority in those religions. As a suggestion to you teachers of Islam, we respect your religion just as we respect our own, your religion is a good religion, but the teachers who don’t teach love, just listen to sermons on the radio, 98.5FM or 95.4FM if I’m not mistaken. There you hear direct teaching sermons broadcast from a mosque in Jakarta, you know what is taught there by the speakers is that the followers of Islam must rise, revenge, oppose Christians, oppose Chinese, oppose the Government. Oh you hypocritical teachers, if you do not teach mutual love and respect between people of your own religion as well as between religions, I am certain that your religion will stay the majority but with a quality of people which is more and more degenerate and with a people who are more and more volatile. REMEMBER! You who teach, you will receive the strictest judgement from God. [from James 3:1] Repent!

Translated by Laura Lochore