JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Cultural Affairs Minister Fadli Zon, already under fire for his initiative to rewrite Indonesian history, is facing a renewed public backlash for downplaying the well-documented mass rapes of Indonesians of Chinese descent during the May 1998 protests and riots that led to the fall of then-president Suharto.
In a June 11 podcast, Fadli dismissed the rapes as mere rumours, claiming there has never been any evidence to support the allegations, comments that have triggered painful memories of the deadly chaos that engulfed Jakarta and elsewhere.
