これはR氏が私に語ってくれた時と同じ時のものである。R氏はチェンカレン地区に 住んでおり（その後引越しをした）、以下に起きた事も目撃していたに違いない。
Eyewitness accounts of the Jakarta riots May 13-15, 1998, in the Bekasi area (East of Jakarta)
Article contributed to Huaren, translated by Mardi Pangestu, 06/11/98
Bekasi is a suburb to the east of Jakarta,
21 kilometers from the center of the city. Its 2.5 million residents are
mostly educated middle-class, close to 95% of
which work in Jakarta.
May 13, 1998. 12:00 Noon
I just heard that riots which started in
West Jakarta near Trisakti campus, where several students had been killed,
had begun to spread out. The news was broadcast
repeatedly on the radio station Sonora FM 100.9. I hurried home.
My neighbors within the subdivision (of 400
houses) had all come home also. We quickly agreed to lock the entrance
gate into the subdivision. After sundown, the
news we followed turned more frightening, among others we heard
that in Jakarta the mobs had looted stores
owned mostly by people of Chinese descent.
May 14, 1998
At around 3PM, we were startled by a warning
that 2 large double-wagon trucks carrying around 300 people were
already outside our subdivision. We knew those
in the trucks were not from the areas surrounding our housing
complex but from somewhere else, and we were
convinced they were organized by certain individual or group since
they immediately started by attacking and
looting stores located just outside of our housing complex. Later into
the night, the situation was getting worse.
Twice they attempted to break in into our complex, but because our
number was quite large, they hesitated to
enter. These failed attempts made them angrier, they started to burn
the stores, supermarket, banks, drugstores, and
even doctor's offices, causing damages to more than 70 store
buildings, 1 supermarket, several banks, and an
automobile showroom along with all the cars and motorcycles in it.
The riot continued on till morning. Everyone
of us, including women and children, was afraid and unable to go to
sleep. The men armed themselves with anything
they could use for self-defense, such as samurai sword, cleaver,
iron bar, wood block, etc. Being a Chinese, I
was thankful we lived here in this subdivision together with people
of different ethnic background and religions
who turned out to have the same kind of feelings when their family
and their own safety were threatened. The worst
I felt was when, because of the repeated attempt by the mob to
gain entrance into our complex, together we
solemnly swore to kill anyone who dared to enter and attack us
(martial law?). That night there was no help
from the police or military, no one had any idea where they were
hiding. Then we heard confusing news on the
radio, that housing complexes in our area had been attacked and
burned (which later we found to be untrue, it
was like an act of terrorism to make us even more afraid).
May 15, 1998
This morning, things quieted down, although
we heard on TV that in other areas, particularly in West Jakarta
(there was high concentration of Chinese living
in there), the situation was totally out of control. It was shown
on TV how the looters, behaving as if above the
law, robbed the stores owned by the Chinese (I will report
this to you in greater detail separately). In
the afternoon, from my rooftop, which was only 500 meters form
Cikampek Highway, I saw more than 15 large
trucks speeding to and fro carrying people whom I believe to be
from outside of Jakarta coming into our area or
into the city. Then, help started to arrive. The police and an
army troop came. Later I found out that a high
ranking police chief lived in our area, so we were lucky that
indirectly our safety was also secured.
Everyone in my housing complex agreed not to leave.
May 16, 1998.
To follow is a separate detailed report of
the riots based on my mother's and my younger brother's accounts.
A report on the Jakarta Riots in West Jakarta
Background:
Most of the Chinese in Jakarta live in the
West and North parts of the city. My mother and brother live in these
areas. The following is based on their
eyewitness accounts of the riots.
May 12, 1998
My mother telephoned me telling me that
Cengkareng, the area where she lived in West Jakarta, had started to
feel very unsafe. The neighborhood leader
(Ketua RT) asked her to turn off most of the lights in the house, and
to use the lights only when necessary.
12:00 Midnight
My mother called again, she sounded very
frightened. She told me that, not 500 meters from her house, the mob
had started throwing rocks at store buildings
owned by the Chinese. Some had even broken in into the stores and
looted whatever they could find. Most of these
stores were of modest size, owned by the poor Chinese merchants
who had barely enough to make ends meet, far
from stereotypically wealthy. The rioters took everything, including
bedding and clothing, leaving only the clothes
the store owners happened to wear on their bodies.
May 13, 1998
04:00 early morning
4 military trucks passed by, the victimized
residents screamed for help, but the were ignored, the trucks did not
stop. Later we found out that those military
personnel were on their way to another neighborhood where the
richer Chinese residents agreed to pay them to
help guard their houses. There were 80 houses, each paying about
US$100. To give you a better picture, US$100 is
Rp. 1 million, enough for a family to live modestly for 2 months.
In the neighborhood where my mother lived,
no one was murdered, but several young women were sexually harassed
and touched. In this area, we also heard issues
about places burned, people killed, etc. This seemed to be part of
the acts of terrorism to further frighten the
residents. The terror is still continuing even today (June 2nd) ,
some houses were marked with red or black
paint. The rumor is that the red paint means the house is to be burned,
while black means to be robbed only.
It hasn't yet happened, but it's more than
enough to instill deeper fear within the community. My 67 year old
mother is completely exhausted mentally.
This was my report on the Jakarta Riots in West Jakarta / Cengkareng areas.