Menyelisik laporan pemerkosaan massal Mei 1998 – ‘Penyangkalannya sistematis sejak dulu’

Warning: This article contains accounts of sexual violence that may be distressing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

Efforts to deny the mass rape of ethnic Chinese women during the May 1998 riots have been systematic, allegedly orchestrated by state-affiliated actors, according to activists. The Joint Fact-Finding Team (TGPF), established by President B.J. Habibie, faced constant interference from parties seeking to erase evidence of the atrocities.

“The denial started from the very beginning, even within the TGPF itself,” says Sri Palupi, a former member of the Assistance Team for the May 1998 Riots TGPF. “Those responsible for the riots tried to hijack the team to serve a single goal: to deny that the mass rapes ever occurred.”

At the time, that goal was not fully realized. The TGPF officially reported that 85 women—most of whom were of Chinese descent—were victims of mass sexual assault, though the actual figure is widely believed to be higher, with incidents spreading well beyond Jakarta.

When the findings were released on November 3, 1998, two TGPF members lodged official objections, demanding the removal of the sections regarding sexual violence, claiming they were “legally unprovable.” Those members were Marwan Paris, representing the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), and Da’i Bachtiar, representing the National Police.

In the archives of the daily newspaper Kompas from November 4, 1998, Da’i Bachtiar explained that the TGPF’s conclusion relied too heavily on analysis rather than “material evidence.” He stated, “Formal confessions alone are not enough without material proof. Of the reported cases, perhaps only three could be followed up by the police—those where victims were willing to testify.”

Palupi recalls that three specific documents were submitted to the team: one regarding the patterns of the riots and military involvement, one on the status of looting, and one on the mass rapes. “Only the third document was contested,” she noted.

Nearly three decades later, this denialism continues. Last year, in an interview with the IDN Times, Minister of Culture Fadli Zon questioned the validity of the term “mass rape.” Furthermore, a press release from the Ministry of Culture and social media posts on June 16, 2025, openly challenged the TGPF report, attempting to delegitimize the historical record.

When reached for comment by BBC News Indonesia, Fadli stood by his stance, arguing that the term was not supported by legal evidence at the time. Meanwhile, human rights activists were unsurprised when the Jakarta Administrative Court (PTUN) rejected a lawsuit against Fadli regarding his comments, as they view such actions as part of a recurring pattern of state denial.

Ita Fatia Nadia, a human rights activist who was initially part of the TGPF, chose to withdraw early due to intense pressure. She recounts being cornered by a military general who demanded specific identities and addresses of the victims. “The general told me that if I couldn’t bring the victims to them or provide their addresses, my reports were nothing but lies,” she recalled.

The harassment extended to a meeting with President B.J. Habibie on July 15, 1998. Ita describes being pulled out of the room by a military advisor, only to be confronted by two generals who accused her of being a liar and a traitor to the nation. Despite the intimidation, she stood her ground, refusing to recant the truth.

Many victims or their families were left without support

The Volunteer Team for Humanity recorded 152 victims of mass rape between May 13 and May 15, 1998, based on testimonies from victims, families, and eyewitnesses. While this number decreased during the TGPF verification process, the decline was largely due to intimidation, the death of victims, or the silencing of families through threats.

“Many victims were never helped,” Palupi explains. “When they reported what happened, they were immediately met with terror, forcing them to disappear or go into hiding.”

This atmosphere of fear was used by certain TGPF members to dismiss claims of sexual violence. Palupi remembers an assistant team member who concluded no rapes had occurred simply because he failed to locate victims at a specific site, ignoring the fact that traumatized survivors would naturally be terrified of coming forward.

Ita Fatia confirms the climate of fear, citing the tragic murder of Ita Martadinata, a student who had been prepared to testify about her assault at the United Nations. After her death, victims and their families were silenced by sheer terror. Recalling those dark days, Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara of the NGO Elsam remarked in Kompas archives, “The state is terrifying. Those who seek truth are killed. I weep, what kind of nation have we become?”

Ita describes the chaos of May 13, 1998, when she received reports of violence in Pluit and Kemayoran, followed by news of looting and attacks on ethnic Chinese women in Glodok. Her quick actions—using an umbrella to ward off attackers and rushing victims to hotel rooms and hospitals—provided a rare glimmer of humanity amidst the collapse of order. By May 14, she and other volunteers had set up a hotline, which was immediately flooded with pleas for help. She recalls assisting two students who had been abducted and wounded, escorting them to the airport to escape the country.

Palupi, who processed the data for the Volunteer Team for Humanity, also discovered cases of sexual violence against men during the chaos, though many families chose to keep these incidents secret as they fled the country.

Days of terror and trauma

Both Ita and Palupi admit that the memories of 1998 still take a toll on their physical and mental well-being. The systematic terror did not stop with the rioting; activists received death threats via fax, phone, and anonymous letters, warning them to cease their investigations if they valued their families’ lives.

In March 1999, after hearing UN Special Rapporteur Radhika Coomaraswamy detail how the state had used the bodies and sexuality of women as a tool of terror, Ita felt completely shattered. She realized that the violence was not random, but highly organized.

Despite the persistent denialism—with state officials often labeling the riots as mere social unrest to avoid accountability—historians and activists emphasize that the sexual violence was systematic. The international community, horrified by reports describing Jakarta as the “rape capital of the world,” pressured the Indonesian government, yet internal resistance remained strong.

Galuh Wandita, an observer of the events, notes that these attacks were designed to destroy the dignity of a community. Because the violence targeted the most vulnerable, it left deep, lasting scars on the nation’s social fabric.

Legal teams representing the victims are now appealing the recent PTUN ruling, determined to fight the ongoing efforts to minimize these crimes. For the activists who witnessed the horrors firsthand, the truth remains non-negotiable.

Conditions for chaos were set long before May 1998

Palupi and her fellow volunteers believe the riots were carefully staged. As the 1997 economic crisis deepened, rhetoric blaming ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs for the nation’s financial woes was pushed by powerful figures, effectively creating a scapegoat. When the May 1998 shootings of Trisakti University students triggered public outrage, provocateurs—often using sophisticated communication equipment and trained tactics—were ready to turn that anger into a targeted campaign of looting and violence.

The final report of the TGPF identified three groups of perpetrators: provocateurs, active rioters, and passive rioters. The provocateurs, described by police as well-trained, orchestrated the violence using Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices, often under the watch of a security apparatus that appeared intentionally inactive. As the volunteer reports noted, a government that claimed to monitor every citizen’s movement yet failed to stop such organized carnage could not be trusted to manage the country.

The TGPF’s findings pointed to high-ranking officials of the time, including current President Prabowo Subianto and then-Major General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the current Minister of Defense. Despite demands for an inquiry into the actions of military leaders at the time, little has been resolved, leaving the victims and the nation to grapple with a history that many in power would prefer to keep buried.