Troops with automatic weapons and police with clubs spread a massive security cordon across this capital Monday after a week of rumors that riots and looting would target ethnic Chinese and their shops during Independence Day celebrations.
The display of force was seen as a test of survival for the 3-month-old government of President B.J. Habibie and the country’s discredited armed forces, who virtually stood by and allowed rioters to torch, loot and rape during a two-day spree of violence in mid-May.
Since then the armed forces, once hailed as the guardians of national unity and peace, have been accused of murdering separatists, dissidents and labor leaders who opposed or criticized President Suharto, the former army colonel who ran Indonesia like a dictator for 32 years until last May.
In a weekend speech to mark independence, Habibie apologized for past atrocities, particularly the systematic rape of an estimated 170 ethnic Chinese women in May and the rampant abuses of human rights during the Suharto regime.
Although several of his Cabinet members are known for their anti-Chinese sentiments, Habibie pledged to safeguard the lives and property of the country’s ethnic Chinese, whose funds and good will are badly needed if Indonesia is to pull out of its deep economic slump.
The persecution of ethnic Chinese, many born in Indonesia, already has triggered anti-Indonesian demonstrations in China, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Taiwan.
“We curse these barbaric acts,” Habibie told a nation where ethnic Chinese generally are regarded as unjustly rich exploiters.
In the tense capital, soldiers and police guarded key areas to avert fresh outbreaks of violence that could further destabilize a country already battered by a collapsed economy, loss of confidence, a badly tarnished image of its armed forces and the transfer overseas of an estimated $80 billion in capital.
Not convinced by the pledge of protection, thousands of ethnic Chinese sent their families to Singapore or Bali as a precaution. Others, taking with them their most valuable possessions, booked into luxury hotels, where they felt safer.
But the long independence weekend, celebrating the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1945, passed quietly, with little of the traditional pomp and flag-waving of past years. Only minor incidents were reported.
A fire at Sawa Besar in northern Jakarta, a slum area in which half of the inhabitants are poor Chinese, destroyed shops and hundreds of homes. It was quickly attributed to an electrical short-circuit.
Causing some panic were reports about intimidation of ethnic Chinese. One young woman departing for Singapore told reporters that when she asked a bus driver for change, he simply pocketed it and snapped, “Do you want to be raped?”
Government officials have appealed to the public to denounce “rumor mongers” and asked for assistance from overseas Internet users to help identify the Web sites that predict imminent riots.
But Indonesian intelligence sources believe the armed forces may have started the rumor mill to show their efficiency in keeping peace and order and restore their image.
The rumors claimed that new riots would target ethnic Chinese, who constitute as much as 4 percent of Indonesia’s 202 million people but control more than 75 percent of the country’s private wealth and run most shops and distribution networks.
“Traditionally the Chinese don’t trust the authorities. They just pay and shut up. It’s unlikely any woman will come forward and tell police she was raped,” said Indonesian sinologist Myra Sidharta.
“In the past there was a tendency to say, well, let the Chinese take care of themselves because they are rich,” admitted Ginandjar Kartasasimita, Indonesia’s minister of economics.
While Habibie’s government, mainly backed by traditional anti-Chinese Muslim forces, has been slow to lure Chinese and their money back to an Indonesia that needs them, the armed forces have launched their own image-building offensive to restore a buffeted reputation.
In a much-publicized gesture, the chief commander, Gen. Wiranto, flew to the Javanese town of Solo this month to hand out government checks to Chinese whose shops had been torched in the May riots.
But the action that sent a buzz around the nation was Wiranto’s decision to detain Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the son-in-law of ex-President Suharto and once a rival for Wiranto’s job.
A military tribunal has questioned Prabowo and two other senior officers about their role in the kidnappings of more than 20 democracy activists. Twelve of the activists, presumably dead, are still missing. The rest were released after brutal beatings and torture.
Prabowo, 46, was head of the Special Forces known as Kopassus, or the Red Berets, for many years. He also commanded the Strategic Reserves, the main combat troops in trouble spots such as East Timor, Aceh (on the northern tip of Sumatra) and Irian Jaya, adjacent to Papua New Guinea.
Trained at Ft. Bragg, N.C., and in Germany in anti-terrorist tactics, Prabowo’s special units allegedly were involved in the May riots, the gang rape of Chinese women and the sniper shooting of three students during a campus meeting. The shootings ignited mass demonstrations in Jakarta.
Gen. Subagya Hadisiswoya, the chief of the military inquiry, said that Prabowo has admitted he made an “error” when interpreting orders about detaining the activists.
Military sources predicted Prabowo will be demoted and temporarily banished to a post abroad.
