Mr. Speaker, the Associated Press reports “Although ethnic Chinese people represent just 4% of Indonesia's 202 million people, they dominate commerce and industry. They are frequently scapegoats during troubled times”.
The Asian financial crisis is hitting Indonesia hard and Indonesian Chinese are being hit harder as scapegoats. For example, Chinese women and young girls are being gang raped. Stores and homes of ethnic Chinese are looted and torched. Many ethnic Chinese are being murdered. Some say that what is happening in Indonesia resembles ethnic cleansing. Ethnic Chinese are fleeing their homes from Malaysia, the Philippines and elsewhere to save their lives.
This government brags about its human rights record. When will the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific speak up for human rights in Indonesia?