The
May 1998 Riots of Indonesia , also known simply as
The 1998 Tragedy , were incidents of
mass violence of a racial nature 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 riots were triggered by economic problems including food shortages and mass
unemployment, and eventually led to the
resignation of President Suharto and the fall of the
New Order government. The main targets of the violence were
ethnic Chinese, however, most of the people who died in the riots were the Javanese Indonesian looters who targeted the Chinese shops, not the Chinese themselves, since the looters were burnt to death in a massive fire.