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4 SOAS L.J. 109 (2017)
Denying Atrocity: Making Sense of the 1998 Jakarta Mass Rape of Ethnic Chinese Women as Genocide

handle is hein.journals/soas4 and id is 308 raw text is: Denying Atrocity? Making Sense of the 1998 Jakarta Mass Rape of Ethnic Chinese Women as Genocide Winibaldus Stefanus Mere Eighteen years ago, hundreds of ethnic Chinese women were raped during three days of mob violence in May 1998 in Jakarta and other areas of Indonesia prior to the downfall of the Soeharto regime. No legal action has been taken to hold the perpetrators to account and to provide justice to the victims. What has happened so far is that despite the evidence of the tragedy having been documented and publicized by reliable sources, the government, military and police, as well as some religious groups that were accused of being responsible for the atrocities have strongly denied the occurrence of the mass rape. (They instead took advantage of victim's reluctance of publicly coming forward with their claims as evidence that the mass rape tragedy was mere a rumour without proof. Furthermore, the stories provided by some victims to humanitarian and human rights activists were labelled as lies that were nothing more than political propaganda to discredit Indonesia as a nation.) Members of the Indonesian parliament and Supreme Court have even suggested that the tragedy, including mass rape of ethnic Chinese, should be considered as ordinary crimes. In contrast to this suggestion, this paper argues that the Jakarta mass rape tragedy was not only a crime against humanity, but also a crime of genocide, as a particular group of Chinese descent women were intentionally targeted with intent to destroy them because of their ethnicity, race and religion. Introduction Nineteen years have passed since the tragic mass rapes of hundreds of ethnic Chinese women in three days of mob violence in May 1998 in Jakarta - and other areas of Indonesia - prior to the downfall of the Soeharto regime. However, the manner in which the government and the courts have previously and continue to handle the atrocities remains mysterious and opaque. This is because despite evidence of the tragedy having been documented and publicised by reliable sources;12 the Government, military, police, along with certain religious groups allegedly responsible for the atrocities have strongly refuted the occurrence Editors Note: All names and identities have been modified for security purposes. 1 Tim Relawan Kemanusiaan, 'Dokumen Awal No 3 Tentang Perkosaan Masal dalam Rentetan Kerusuhan Puncak Kebiadaban dalam Kehidupan Bangsa', 13 July 1998 (The Volunteers Team for Humanity, Early Documentation No. 3, the Rapes in the Series of Riots: The Climax of an Uncivilized Act of the Nation Life), Sandyawan Sumardi, <http://www.huaren.com/Indo/atrocities.html>; Joint Fact-Finding Team, 'Final Report of The Joint Fact-Finding Team on 13-15 May 1998 Riot', 23 October 1998 2 Ibid.

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