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cin, an Indonesian of Chinese descent from Medan, North Sumatra, said the thought of returning to his own '€” looted and ruined '€” business was so disturbing he changed career following the May 1998 riots.

When the riots broke out on May 4, 1998, Acin was on vacation in Singapore with his wife. His two children, however, were at home, which was near to the warehouse where he stored the food he sold including rice, sugar and cooking oil, he explained.

Recalling his children'€™ story, Acin said that his warehouse was looted at about 10 p.m. local time on the first day of the riots.

He said the two security guards that were guarding his warehouse were outnumbered as hundreds of people were involved in the looting.

'€œNothing was left,'€ said Acin, adding that he lost billions of rupiah.

Meanwhile, Hasyim, another Indonesian of Chinese descent, told a similar story.

He said the May 1998 riots really affected the Chinese-Indonesian community in Medan.

'€œMost of the riot victims lived on the outskirts of the city. Those living downtown were relatively safe,'€ Hasyim said.

He said nobody understood why a number of Chinese-Indonesian strongholds were guarded by military personnel from Java island.

'€œThe question was where were the personnel assigned to Medan at that time? Why it was personnel from Java that maintained security in Medan?'€ said Hasyim, who is currently a councilor on the Medan City legislative council.

Among the 2.8 million people in Medan, Chinese-Indonesians account for 10.65 percent. Javanese is the most dominant population in the province (33.2 percent), followed by Tapanuli (19.21 percent), Mandailing (9.36 percent), Minang (8.6 percent), Malay (6.59 percent), Karo (4.1 percent), Aceh (2.78 percent) and other ethnic groups (5.07 percent).

Chairman of the Association of North Sumatra Chinese-Indonesians, Indra Wahidin, said that the riots in Medan were the forerunner of the riots in Jakarta. The riots in both cities, he said, had the same modus: targeting the Chinese.

He also said that the riots were triggered by politics.

'€œWe hunger for harmonious lives in this country. All as one. We help each other, respect each other and build the nation,'€ Indra said.

It is not widely known that the May riots began in Medan when the military and police broke up a student rally demanding the resignation of president Soeharto at the campus of the Medan Teacher Training Institute (IKIP), now the Medan State University (Unimed).

Security officers attacked and shot students and lecturers. Later in the evening, protesters fought back. Dozens of students were injured and several female students were reportedly sexually assaulted by the officers.

The rally got out of control when residents joined the students against the officers and the resulting free-for-all spilled out onto the streets surrounding the campus. It was then that the looting began. Similar scenes were seen in other cities in the province and lasted for four days.