Ethnic Chinese make 1998 riots in Jakarta an election issue

Indonesian ethnic-Chinese groups are trying to make an election issue out of the 1998 riots that saw their community targeted in Jakarta and elsewhere in the archipelago as the Suharto regime crumbled.

Rudy Chua, spokesman for the Indonesian Chinese Social Association, urged former generals and vice-presidential candidates Wiranto and Prabowo Subianto to provide answers.

Wiranto was head of the military while Mr Prabowo was in charge of the army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad).

In Indonesia it is largely believed the events were orchestrated by the military to deflect attention from the regime, a belief later backed by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.

'We want to know who is responsible for the tragedy. Who were the masterminds and who let it happen?' said Mr Chua, who is also a legislator in the Riau provincial assembly.

'Wiranto and Prabowo have denied any involvement, but their words are not enough,' he said. 'The two were part of the military elite at that time, and they must know what happened. We are talking about mass rape, torture and targeted killings. Their pretence that this is forgotten history is unacceptable.'

Mr Chua said the Chinese community was suspicious of the two former generals and that unless they clarified what happened, this would probably shape the ethnic-Chinese choice in the vote on July 8.