Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
The May 1998 riots of Indonesia (Indonesian: Kerusuhan Mei 1998), also known as the 1998 tragedy (Tragedi 1998) or simply the 1998 event (Peristiwa 1998), were incidents of mass violence, demonstrations, and civil unrest of that occurred throughout Indonesia, mainly in Medan in the province of North Sumatra (4–8 May), the capital city of Jakarta (12–15 May), and Surakarta (also called Solo) in the province of Central Java (13–15 May). The violent riots were triggered by corruption, economic problems, including food shortages and mass unemployment. It eventually led to the resignation of President Suharto and the fall of the New Order government, which had been in power for 32 years. The main targets of the violence were ethnic Chinese Indonesians, but most of the casualties were caused by a massive fire and occurred among looters.It was estimated that more than a thousand people died in the riots. At least 168 cases of rape were reported, and material damage was valued at more than Rp 3.1 trillion (~260 million USD). As of 2010, legal proceedings regarding the riots were stalled and not completed.