Latest news with #massrape
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Gisele Pelicot awarded France's Legion of Honour
Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who earned international recognition after publicly testifying at her mass-rape trial last year, has been given France's top 72-year-old was named knight of the Legion of Honour on a list announced ahead of France's Bastille waived her right to anonymity during the high-profile trial against her husband who had drugged and raped her, in addition to inviting dozens of strangers to also abuse her over nearly a was among 589 other people given France's highest award on Sunday. She attended almost every day of the trial, which ended last December with Dominique Pelicot, 72, being given a maximum 20 years in jail for aggravated rape, after confessing to drugging her and recruiting around 50 men to rape her while she lay comatose in bed."I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too," Pelicot previously told reporters, adding that she wanted to make "shame swap sides" from the victim to the President Emmanuel Macron has publicly paid tribute to Pelicot as a trailblazer, adding that her "dignity and courage moved and inspired France and the world".According to her lawyer, a memoir detailing Gisèle Pelicot's story in her own words will be published early next year.
CNA
03-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
1998 mass rapes to be left out of Indonesia's national history rewrite, ‘need to be proven': Culture Minister
JAKARTA: Mass rapes committed during Indonesia's 1998 riots will not be included in the government's ongoing national history rewrite project, according to the country's Culture Minister. On Wednesday (Jul 2), Fadli Zon also confirmed that the project would proceed, despite criticism from historians and human rights activists. 'We expect our national history to strengthen the nation's unity in diversity,' said Fadli during a meeting with the House of Representatives at the Parliament Complex, as quoted by local news agency Antara. Fadli said the revision of the country's official historical narrative aims to promote national unity that avoids deepening ethnic and communal divisions through a positive retelling of key events. This comes despite findings by an official independent fact-finding team, TGPF, in October 1998 which documented widespread sexual violence during the riots, with 52 rape victims verified, according to local news outlet Jakarta Globe. The report by the independent fact-finding team included 14 incidents of rape accompanied by physical violence, 10 victims of sexual assault and nine victims of sexual harrassment across Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya. It was previously received by former President BJ Habibie, who had expressed regret over the violence, noted Commissioner Dahlia Madanih of the National Commission on Violence Against Women last month. Speaking during the parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, Fadli acknowledged the 1998 sexual violence but questioned the use of the term 'mass rape', which he said requires legal and historical verification. 'Personally, I acknowledge and condemn the events but the word 'mass' needs to be proven,' the minister was quoted as saying by Jakarta Globe. 'We are not digging into who the perpetrators were, but ensuring it never happens again,' Fadli told lawmakers on Wednesday, adding that the government prefers to highlight narratives that unify the nation in the new history books. He said these included international achievements and global leadership roles, such as the Asian-African Conference, held in Bandung in 1955, and the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Indonesia was a founding member. Fadli's latest remarks on Wednesday sparked emotional reactions in the hearing from lawmakers MY Esti Wijayati and Mercy Barends from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). 'It hurts even more the longer you speak, Mr Fadli,' Esti was quoted as saying by Jakarta Globe, with her voice trembling as she recalled being unable to return home during the 1998 unrest. Following Esti's comment, Fadli apologised if his remarks came across as insensitive but reiterated that clear documentation and legal confirmation were necessary before the events could be classified as 'mass rape'. 'If it can be traced to who the groups and perpetrators were, it would be clearer,' the minister said, adding that he does not intend to deny or cover up the violence. Fadli, who is part of President Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra party, said that the history rewrite is targeted for completion by August this year to coincide with the country's 80th Independence Day celebrations. Last month, Fadli came under fire for his remarks that the mass rapes were 'all hearsay' and 'rumours', inciting concerns over the government's plan to launch a new 10-volume series of history books during Indonesia's Independence Day on Aug 17. Some historians say these history books will omit major human rights violations. 'This is about leaving a history for our children and grandchildren,' Fadli said on Wednesday. 'We have not updated our historical narrative for 26 years and this is our chance.' The unrest in Indonesia in 1998 arose from economic turmoil and mounting anger at former President Suharto's authoritarian rule. Chinese-Indonesians were targeted in riots that broke out in various cities in May that year, days before Suharto resigned. The violence remains a sensitive issue in Indonesia, with activists repeatedly urging the government to officially acknowledge and investigate the sexual violence against women. Rights groups have said that the lack of legal resolution continues to deny justice to the victims, many of whom remain silent due to fear and stigma. 'The survivors have borne the burden in silence for too long. This denial is not only painful but also perpetuates impunity,' Dahlia from the National Commission on Violence Against Women said on Jun 15, as quoted by Antara. 'When government officials say the rapes didn't happen, it deeply wounds us, especially Chinese-Indonesian women, who lived through that horror,' Diyah Wara Restiyati from the Indonesian Chinese Youth Association previously said in June, as reported by local media. A 30-page draft outline of the rewrite project only included two out of 17 cases of gross human rights violations recognised by Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights, media outlet Nikkei Asia reported. Some of the omitted cases include events involving President Prabowo, according to Nikkei Asia. Prabowo, a former general, was accused of orchestrating the 1997-1998 kidnapping and forced disappearance of 22 activists critical of Suharto, including 13 who are still missing today. Suharto was Prabowo's former father-in-law.
CNA
17-06-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Indonesian minister's denial of 1998 mass rapes slammed by activists, officials
JAKARTA: An Indonesian minister's denial of mass rapes that took place during the country's 1998 riots has been slammed by rights activists and the National Commission on Violence Against Women. Culture Minister Fadli Zon's remarks that the mass rapes were 'all hearsay' and 'rumours' have incited fresh concerns over the government's plan to release new history books that some historians say omit major human rights violations. "What actually happened? We never truly know, as there has never been any hard evidence. Who said it was mass rape? It was all hearsay, and such rumours won't resolve anything," Fadli said in a podcast last week with media outlet IDN Times. He was discussing the government's plan to revise the country's official historical narrative by launching a new 10-volume series of history books during Indonesia's Independence Day on Aug 17. The project has been panned by historians in recent weeks, after a 30-page draft outline began circulating in limited circles. Fadli's remarks on the mass rapes flew in the face of past findings, including that by a government-sanctioned fact-finding team whose report documented 85 cases of sexual violence, including 52 rapes, in 1998. The report was received by former President BJ Habibie, who expressed regret over the violence, noted Commissioner Dahlia Madanih of the National Commission on Violence Against Women on Sunday (Jun 15). 'Denying the official findings of the fact-finding team is denying the collective work of this nation in the pursuit of justice,' Dahlia said, as reported by Indonesian news agency Antara. 'The survivors have borne the burden in silence for too long. This denial is not only painful but also perpetuates impunity,' she said. The unrest in Indonesia in 1998 arose from economic turmoil and mounting anger at former President Suharto's authoritarian rule. Chinese-Indonesians were targeted in riots that broke out in various cities in May that year, days before Suharto resigned. Fadli's comments were 'deeply hurtful' and dismissive of well-documented evidence of violence that targeted the Chinese-Indonesian community, said Diyah Wara Restiyati from the Indonesian Chinese Youth Association, as reported by news outlet The Jakarta Post. 'When government officials say the rapes didn't happen, it deeply wounds us, especially Chinese-Indonesian women, who lived through that horror,' Diyah said. Jakarta city councillor Fatimah Tania Nadira Alatas also criticised Fadli, saying his comments were unethical and an attempt to erase historical trauma. 'Historical wounds cannot be erased, especially not revised. The violence against women, particularly ethnic Chinese women, must be remembered so it never happens again,' said Tania, whose remarks were posted on the Jakarta NasDem Party's social media accounts. In the wake of public criticism, Fadli – who is with President Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra party – said he was calling for 'academic and legal caution' when referring to the incidents as mass rapes. He said the term carries serious implications and must be backed by legally verified data, and that he was not denying sexual violence occurred during the 1998 riots, reported news site Jakarta Globe. But Fadli criticised the fact-finding team's work. Posting on social media platform X on Monday, he said its report listed numbers without detailed corroboration of information such as names, locations or perpetrators. 'We must be careful because this affects national dignity and truth,' Fadli said. The Indonesian government's plan to launch new history books has been criticised by activists and historians. A leading historian, Asvi Warman Adam, has said the draft downplays abuses and is 'glorifying' the achievements made under Suharto's regime, The Jakarta Post reported. The draft outline includes only two out of 17 cases of gross human rights violations recognised by Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights, news outlet Nikkei Asia reported. Some of the omitted cases include events involving President Prabowo, according to Nikkei Asia. Prabowo has not commented on the project, Nikkei Asia reported. But he has previously said some former activists are now his supporters. Prabowo, a former general, was accused of orchestrating the 1997-1998 kidnapping and forced disappearance of 22 activists critical of Suharto, including 13 who are still missing today. Suharto was Prabowo's former father-in-law. Fadli claimed the accusations have been debunked when speaking to news agency Reuters last month. Reuters reported Jajat Burhanuddin, a historian involved in the project, saying there had been no state intervention so far. The 1998 kidnappings and torture of student activists would be included, Jajat reportedly said, although he declined to say whether Prabowo would be mentioned in those accounts. Fadli has said the project would have an Indonesia-centric narrative and aims "to reinvent the Indonesian identity". He has said it will involve over 100 historians and archaeologists from 34 universities and research institutions. But a coalition of activists and historians, called the Indonesian Historical Transparency Alliance, has said the project 'appears to be a deliberate effort to engineer the past with a single interpretation'. The coalition called last month on House of Representatives lawmakers to reject the government's bid to rewrite history. Hetifah Sjaifudian, chair of the House's Commission X overseeing education and culture, said the committee would meet with the Culture Ministry, and promised to urge the removal of the 'official' label from the new books to preserve space for open historical discourse, The Jakarta Post reported.
The Sun
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Grooming gangs inquiry must root out racists who turned blind eye to rape of young white girls – they MUST face justice
IF there ever was a justification for holding a public inquiry it is surely the mass rape of under-age girls by gangs of men. Also, the failure for many years of police, social workers and other agencies to take the issue seriously. 5 5 5 The scale of the offending is extraordinary. A report by Professor Alexis Jay concluded that 1400 girls were abused in Rotherham alone between 1997 and 2013, yet the girls themselves were ignored -- or even blamed for their own abuse. That we are finally getting an inquiry is of little credit to this government, which for months until Keir Starmer's U-turn at the weekend had tried to belittle the scandal and, even worse, make out that those who called for an inquiry were pandering to extremists or as he put it: 'jumping on the bandwagon of the far right'. The Prime Minister himself made this claim back in January, accusing Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch of 'amplifying' the words of the Far Right and making unfounded claims that critics such as Elon Musk were 'spreading lies and misinformation '. 'Stain on our society' Lucy Powell, Leader of the House of Commons, went on to describe it as a 'dog whistle' even to mention the abuse scandal. Around the same time Starmer insisted: 'This doesn't need more consultation. "It doesn't need more research. It just needs action.' He later added the victims 'don't want to see another national inquiry'. Well he was wrong. Many of these women treated so appallingly DID want an inquiry. And they are getting one now because Louise Casey, whom the government engaged in January to carry out a rapid review in the hope of batting away the issue, has come down in favour of one. Home secretary Yvette Cooper told us that the scandal was 'a stain on our society'. I was locked up & raped in dingy flat for days by grooming gangs - only to find out one sicko was a POLICE officer who's never seen justice So it is. But why couldn't she and the rest of the Government bring themselves to admit that back in January when they were trying to tell us that it was all sorted out, in the past, and that there was nothing more to say on the matter? Officials, she added, often avoided the topic for fear of being labelled racist. So they do, but the same applies to most of the Cabinet. The perpetrators were, inconveniently to many of them, heavily concentrated in one section of the UK population: they were men of Pakistani heritage. There is of course a glaring reason why the abuse scandal was ignored by so many individuals and organisations who were in a position to stop it. The perpetrators were, inconveniently to many of them, heavily concentrated in one section of the UK population: they were men of Pakistani heritage. Cooper still can't quite bring herself to admit the truth, telling the Commons that 'Asians' had been found to be 'over-represented' among the suspects in abuse by gangs. For some reason she couldn't bring herself to be more specific than that. It is true that there are some on the Far Right who would love to make an issue of the grooming gangs scandal for their own ends. But they are somewhat outnumbered by those on the liberal-left who for years balked at the idea that an ethnic minority could be disproportionately involved in a serious form of crime. It is the latter who are far more influential in the legal justice system. Sadly, these people, who tend to dominate police constabularies, council social services departments and the judiciary, lack the insight to see that they are equally guilty of racism and prejudice as are the Far Right. For years, they were making decisions on whether or not to investigate sex offences or prosecute rapists on the basis of the colour and religion of the offenders. Bizarrely, people who bleat endlessly about the gender gap in company boardrooms, and other supposed injustices against well-paid professional women, turned out to be blatant misogynists when faced with the mass abuse of white working class girls. They treated them as worthless, whose welfare was to be cast aside in the cause of promoting racial and religious equality. Most Britons, needless to say, want justice to be meted out to offenders equally, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. They reject utterly the notion that some groups of the population should, to borrow George Orwell's phrase, be more equal than others. They want the criminal justice system to deal with what is happening now, not be used as a tool to try to right injustices in the distant past through treating some groups more leniently than others. In spite of the child abuse scandal the Prime Minister, and many others on the Left, simply cannot stop themselves. The same attitude which prevailed in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford and many other towns was there to be seen again during last summer's riots. Starmer, who had had little to say about riots in Leeds, sparked when Roma children were taken into care, or a machete fight on Southend seafront, lost no time in condemning anyone he thought he could blame for encouraging the riots which followed the Southport murders. Police withheld important information about the suspect behind the attacks, apparently out of fear it might encourage the Far Right. Racial tensions But if you want to encourage the Far Right there is no better way of doing so than to brush serious acts of crime under the carpet. For years the only people who were talking about the mass rape of white girls by men of Pakistani heritage were the British National Party. Indeed, the first I heard about it was in a BBC documentary filmed covertly to expose the BNP. It is vital that the racist attitudes of those who tried to excuse serious criminal activity are rooted out for good. I have to say that, like most viewers I suspect, I thought that rape gang allegations which featured in the programme were just a tall story made up to ramp up racial tensions. But they weren't. Much as I despise the BNP, the efforts of others to cover up the mass rape scandal handed the party the initiative. That is why we need an inquiry into the rape scandal, and why it must focus absolutely on the most important question: Why was there such a conspiracy of silence, and why did so many 'enlightened' people think it acceptable to turn a blind eye to gang rape. It is vital that the racist attitudes of those who tried to excuse serious criminal activity are rooted out for good. 5 5
Daily Mail
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
SUE REID: I uncovered the grooming gangs scandal 15 years ago - and was vilified by the Left. Now I've been entirely vindicated, but I fear this repugnant crime is still going on today...
At last Sir Keir Starmer has announced a national inquiry into the mass-rape gangs prowling the streets of our towns and cities to target young girls for sex. And not before time. His dramatic U-turn follows months of Government reluctance to launch a country-wide probe into the so-called 'grooming' scandal that has shamed Britain for decades. Street rape gangs have operated in the North, the South, the Midlands. There are thousands of girl victims, mostly underage, mostly white. But make no mistake: youngsters of all creeds and colours (including boys) have been damaged by this repugnant, out-of-control crime which I fear is ongoing today.
