Singapore group supports victims of rape in Indonesia
1998-08-21

Category United Nations Nations Singapore Indonesia China Event 1998 Indonesian Anti-Chinese Riots

A Singapore-based human rights group announced Friday that several thousand people have signed separate petitions urging Indonesian President B.J. Habibie and the United Nations to act against the recent gang rapes of Chinese-Indonesian women in Indonesia.

The petition calls on the Indonesian president to condemn the rapes and to provide aid and compensation to the victims and their families, a spokeswoman for the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) said.

A second petition asks the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights to press the Indonesian government to conduct a thorough investigation and punish those responsible for the rapes.

The group is currently holding a photo exhibition in Singapore until the end of this month. It contains photos detailing the organized rapes of women that occurred during military conflicts, including the civil war in Bosnia and the Nanjing massacre in China.

Newspaper reports earlier this week had said that some of the photos of rapes in Indonesia were not authentic. The reports claimed some photos were taken in East Timor or came from pornographic sites on the Internet.

AWARE responded by attaching special captions to photos of uncertain authenticity. The photos were obtained from a Hong Kong newspaper and from a web site for the Chinese community on the Internet, the spokeswoman said.

''There is no intention to deceive anyone,'' she said.