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JAKARTA - Gangs of grave robbers have been digging up Chinese graves in two cities on the Indonesian island of Java, looting the coffins of valuables and discarding the remains, officials and a press report said Friday. Weeping relatives and graveyard guardians were powerless to stop the gangs, armed with knives, crowbars and sickles, in the central Javanese cities of Pekalongan and Surakarta (Solo), the Jakarta Post said. The often broad-daylight desecration of the graves by apparent strangers which started about one month ago went unchecked by authorities, it added. "It is true, but we can't say how many," Sergeant Fitri, an adjutant to Pekalongan police chief Colonel Ismu Haryono told AFP by phone of the report, which was also confirmed by a local Pekalongan ethnic-Chinese association. Fitri said no arrests had been made to date. The Post quoted cemetery officials as saying they had counted 268 graves dug up in the two cities by the looters, who arrived in groups of 10 armed with saws, crowbars and digging tools at all times of day and night. They broke open the coffins, took whatever jewellery and valuables they found buried-according to Chinese tradition-with the dead, and often made off with the coffins that are usually made of thick valuable wood, the Post said. The robbers usually come and leave with their loot, which often included the marble tombstones, on the backs of trucks and leave the remains scattered on the ground, the daily said. "In one incident the thieves failed to open the teak casket, so they just threw it on their truck," Surakarta cemetery guard Sastro told the Post. Relatives visiting the looted graves of their ancestors over the past month broke down in shock, seeing the remains scattered and the tombs desecrated, it said. Over the past month Chinese throughout Asia have been protesting at Indonesian embassies over the brutal treatment meted out to the country's ethnic-Chinese minority during the May riots that preceded the fall of former president Suharto. Edi Dasuki, director of the Gotong Royong ethnic Chinese foundation in Pekalongan, told AFP it had been able to do nothing other than report the cases. "We are helpless and we can do nothing as the ground where the graves are, is state land over which we have no authority. All we can do is leave the matter in the hands of the police and the security (the military)," he said. Dasuki said his foundation had no data on the number of grave robberies as it only dealt with the family. "We have had complaints from some of our members of the thefts on their family's graves but all we have been able to do is to report the cases to the authorities," Dasuki said by phone. He said that the foundation had received a letter from the district military which said that they were aware of the looting of graves and were working on the cases. In the letter, the military said police have arrested two men, Dasuki said. "The reaction of our members affected by the thefts have been varied. Some did nothing, some others have reburied the remains and repaired the graves, others have taken the remains and cremated them instead," he said. "The looters would carefully remove the marble gravestone. Then they would take out and open the casket where the deceased valuables are kept," the Post quoted Subagio, a resident near the Kuripan cemetary in the coastal batik-making city of Pekalongan as saying.
The newspaper described the looters as "strangers, well built, fiery looking and armed with sharp weapons," it added. Police Chief Haryomo, the Post said, expressed his disgust at the looting. "I can't stop wondering how people have the heart to loot graves in this supposedly civilized society," Haryomo was quoted as saying. In Surakarta, one of the cities hard-hit in the May riots which targeted ethnic-Chinese, 15 cases had been reported, all in the Jebres Chinese cemetary.
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From:[name deleted] Sent: Monday, August 24, 1998 5:13 PM To:[deleted]
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