[asia-apec 463] Chinese in Indonesia

[Catherine Coumans]

>From: David Tan Tuan Heng <narko at pacific.net.sg>
>Subject: Riot in Medan
>
>We've had actually been thru hell these few days and in the second day of
>the riot , the looters and robbers came within 1 km from my house and
>everyone was so scared ! You see the scale of the riot was so big that
>the authority just couldn't cope with it for the first few days and on top
>of that , having to adhere to the 'principles' of Human Rights , they
>couldn't do any harm to the rioters which were in fact out not to
demonstrate
>with the students but to rob and loot - they could only fire warning shots
>>in the air ...so the rioters went on their rampage as if no police and
>>army
>>were present , by  first breaking down locked doors of
>>shophouses and then started looting and in some bad cases after
>>looting they set fire to us poor Chinese's houses !!In almost all areas
>>,
>>the youths of 12 - 14 year olds would started to stone and then forced
>>open
>>doors with crowbars and what-nots and when they succeeded ,
>>women(grandmothers too)and children as young as 5-6 years old will come
>>for
>>the spoil(these are confirmed , I don't
>>make them up for dramatisation).For your information ,there were many
>>gruesome facts of gross abuses of Human Rights on us Chinese which the
>>western media we see are trying to cover up so as not to marr the
>>glorification of the so-called student movement , 99% of property
>>destroyed
>>belong to Chinese and in some cases mob stood
>>outside houses banging away at doors to demand that owners came out and
>>when the owners didn't they started the burning and that resulted in one
>>13
>>year old Chinese girl being burnt to death but of course you'll never
>>hear
>>it from the media here or otherwise. This is what I can confirm right
>>now
>>in Medan and in others immediate areas of the city and other small towns
>>
>>I'm sure more
>>gruesome cases will surely surface later. We even had several confirmed
>>cases of rapes when they came at night - sometimes late at night ,
>>otherwise mid-nite or even 3 a.m. in the morning ! Many western media
>>portrait these bastards as the poor and hungry ones but I don't see any
>>shortage of food or anything In this natural resouce rich North Sumatera
>>
>>province and don't you know that
>>many sold the goods in the side streets afterwards - sacks of rice as
>>cheap
>>as 1/2 the original price(we're beginning to experience shortage of
>>it)and
>>televisions for a fraction of the listed price ! Have you ever seen the
>>hungry in any part of this world loot and rob shophouses and sold the
>>loots
>>afterwards ..in Africa and other parts of poor  Asia ? If they worry
>>about
>>their stomachs , how come they burn afterwards , for what purpose if not
>>
>>racial discrimination ? As a result of these  enormous pressures on us
>>who have been abandoned by our own protectors we paid tax to , we were
>>forced to form groups of vigilantes patroling our own neighbourhood and
>>in
>>some cases there were clashes with these bastard resulting in bloody
>>casualties on both sides but as a result of these vigilant acts , we
>>Medan

>>Chinese had prevented worse violence on us but we have to give credits
>>to
>>the reinforcements of special army units from Jawa who were really
>>professional and were ordered to deal harshly with these bastards. Sadly
>>
>>the authority seems to always make us difficult  and one example was to
>>issue a warning to us Chinese that we are not allowed to carry any sharp
>>
>>objects such as swords, spears , hatchets etc. and upon seeing them will
>>be
>>confiscated which
>>left us with blunt objects such as baseball bats , hockey sticks and so
>>on.These vigilants acts in some cases provoke revenge
>>attacks and in one case , as I have told you before , they came out at
>>night where they hid in a very co-ordinated way to attack at about 3
>>a.m.
>>in the  morning , obviously someone(political or otherwise)must have
>>co-ordinated it !! So yours truly had to switch weapons from a samurai
>>katana to only a hockey stick ,
>>how's that for your  vigilante friend , huh? You see in Medan every
>>Chinese
>>stood up regardless of how much savings you had before in the banks -
>>from
>>the poorest to some conglomerate quality ones (no joke !!) and you know
>>what ,it actually made us feel proud to be able to stick together and in
>>a
>>sense it lessen the fear in each of us have inside us !!
>>
>>Never have this phenomena happened before for us overseas Chinese here
>>whoI'm sure you know pretty well we're always the target of their fury
>>at
>>any problem/s , WE WERE THE TRADITIONAL SCAPEGOATS since the beginning
>>of
>>the formation of this republic!! Peter , do me a favour if you can , if
>>you
>>care for justice , spread the
>>words around about our sufferings here let the world know or at least
>>your
>>friends preferrably Chinese ones and if you want to read more about the
>>riot you can access http://www.huaren.org/ and my suggestions is , DO
>>recommend them to any of your friends who care about these injustices
>>that
>>had befallen us here !!! Thanks and regards.
>
>  Best Regards
> Herbert Wong
>
>      David........  :-)   
>
>