E/CN.4/1999/15 page 28 Government reply of 7 August 1998 114. Prior to President Soeharto's resignation on 21 May 1998, which marked the end of 32 years of the “New Order” Government, several cases of human rights abuses shocked the Indonesian people and gave rise to strong concern within the international community. These included the massive burning and looting resulting from the May 1998 riots and the widespread violence and rapes essentially aimed at Indonesia's Chinese minority. However, the new Government is strongly committed to investigating these cases fully, for the sake of the victims and the whole nation, to address the root causes of this tragedy and to bring those responsible to justice. 115. The deplorable attacks on Indonesian citizens, most notably on the Chinese minority, during the May riots, in Jakarta as well as in other parts of Indonesia, have, according to human rights groups, resulted in the death of more than 1,000 persons, many of whom were non-Chinese Indonesians, and the rape of some 160 ethnic Chinese women. 116. In a public announcement on 8 July 1998, Mr. B.J. Habibie, the new Indonesian President, described the horrors that took place in May as the most inhuman episode in the history of the nation. The President, in sharing the grief and the distress of the victims, expressed, on behalf of the Government and the people of Indonesia, deep regret and strongly condemned the atrocities perpetrated during the May riots, including the violence against the Chinese community, in particular the rape of Chinese women. 117. Human rights groups, including the National Commission for Human Rights, known as Komnas HAM, suggested, on the basis of evidence gathered during the course of their investigation, that it was organized groups which instigated arson, vandalism and rapes, aimed largely at ethnic Chinese neighbourhoods. 118. In addition to the measures taken to investigate the cases of human rights violations, the Government has already taken steps to provide assistance to the victims and above all to prevent such incidents from happening again; these steps are described in the following paragraph. 119. On 12 June 1998, the Ministry for Women's Affairs established a forum called Kata Bunga in cooperation with the Indonesian psychiatrists' association, the Pusat Bantuan dan Konsultasi Hukum, an institution offering legal aid, a number of religious leaders (Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu) and Indonesian Chinese Groups (Persabi and Kong Hu Chu). The task of this forum is to collect relevant information, conduct studies and formulate recommendations to the Government in order for the latter to provide adequate assistance to the victims and to prevent the recurrence of these unfortunate incidents. In addition, it is aimed at providing medical, psychological and legal assistance as well as spiritual counselling to the victims. 120. On 8 July 1998, the Government, accepting its full responsibility to ensure the physical and psychological integrity of the victims of rape, formed a task force for the protection of women against violence. This task force, whose task is to follow up the recommendations of the Kata Bunga forum, is headed by the Minister for Women's Affairs as Chairman, the Minister for Social Affairs as her deputy and the First Lady, Dr. Hasri Ainum Habibie as