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View all search resultsWitnesses in 1998 mass rape lawsuit tell court of attempt to erase history
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Visitors walk past skulls made from resin and grave markers recreated for an art installation in Jakarta on May 21, 2024, to commemorate "26 years of the reform movement" and since the May 1998 Indonesia riots, in which hundreds of protesters were killed or disappeared in unrest that brought an end to the rule of former president Soeharto. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
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mother of a May 1998 mass rape victim and a historian have testified in a lawsuit against Culture Minister Fadli Zon’s denial of the rapes that took place almost three decades ago, describing his statement as a blatant attempt to erase and delegitimize the history.
At the Jakarta State Administrative Court on Thursday, Wiwin Suryadinata, the mother of murdered activist Ita Martadinata Haryono, cried while recalling her hurtful experience after her daughter was raped and murdered during the racially-motivated May 1998 riots.
Ita was only 17 years old when her dead and mutilated body was found on Oct. 9, 1998, and her murder remains unsolved to date.
“They [the victims] had families. Imagine being the mother who carried her as I did, or the father who had raised the child,” she told the judges, as quoted from a statement issued by a coalition of civil groups advocating against state impunity.
“This is not just about my daughter but all the Indonesian children. I represent the mothers whose children were murdered,” she added.
Wiwin testified as a witness in the lawsuit that was brought against Fadli by seven plaintiffs, including former attorney general and human rights activist Marzuki Darusman, former Jesuit priest Sandyawan Sumardi, as well as the Indonesian Chinese Youth Association (IPTI) and rights group the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
They accused Fadli of committing an unlawful act as a government official last year when he publicly denied the 1998 mass rape and claimed that there was no evidence substantiating the events. The plaintiffs demanded that he retract his statement and apologize to survivors and victims’ families.
