This report, posted on CNN discussion boards on the Internet, provides a first person account of the plight of Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. In tone, it combines confession and accusation in a distinctive way; articles in the Australian press confirm that rights monitoring groups in Indonesia have received many accounts of women of Chinese descent being raped and abused during last month's rioting in Indonesia. PNS correspondent Ida Sohimbing is a writer located in Palembang.

PALEMBANG, SUMATRA, INDONESIA -- As a Pribumi, a native of Indonesia, I feel deeply ashamed of my fellow Indonesians. But I also feel that everyone should know the reality of what has been going on in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Ethnic Chinese homes were looted and burned by mobs. The young women living in those homes were forced to strip naked and then gang raped in front of their own parents and a crowd of onlookers, including women wearing the jilbab (the Muslim veil).

Chinese people who live on Veteran Street were forced to put down Moslem prayer mats in front of their own houses.

No matter how desperate, frustrated or poverty-stricken you are, there is no possible justification for this kind of behavior. It seems like we are edging towards a Yugoslavia-type scenario. What if the tables were turned, and Pribumi were in the minority?

Don't let it go any further. All the abstract nonsense doesn't help anyone or change anything. You can carry on talking until the year 3000 without any effect. Most people in Indonesia have very simple lives and they need simple solutions, simple changes. If people follow universal codes of decency and humanity, we can find these solutions.

If a house has been rotting and collapsing for years and years, we don't need to argue about the color of the curtains. Get real!

Let us not make the mistake of misguided extremists. If the Indonesian Chinese are too dominant in our economy, let us take measures to help Pribumis to succeed in business.

At the same time, we should open other areas of society to the Chinese. Let them attend state universities, make careers in the army, in politics, in the legal professions and in the civil service. Remove the discriminatory laws against Chinese characters, Chinese cultural celebrations, and so forth.

These are some first steps to restoring equality in our society. If an ethnic minority can survive despite discrimination, they should be admired and learned from, not exterminated.

Of course, I'm not denying that there are plenty of corrupt, selfish ethnic Chinese in this country. But can anyone deny that they work hand-in-hand with corrupt, selfish Pribumi?

Let us try and convict these criminals in a court of law and punish them in a civilized manner like any other criminal. Lynch mobs are not the answer.

There is no such thing as an Indonesian Indonesia. Since we won our independence from the Dutch, Indonesia has included Batak, Ambonese, Javanese, Palembangnese, Padangnese, Chinese, Irian.

All are Indonesian and have the same rights as anyone else to let the rest of us know what's going on. Don't ever feel intimidated to tell the truth. Too many people have kept silent in this country for too long.

The kind of barbarity which has been going on is destroying the soul of Indonesia.