The women are too dusky in complexion to be ethnic Chinese. But for every sceptical newsman, there are many others who would accept the photos at face-value. This is why the Internet, insidious in its absolute freedom to disseminate truths, half-truths and untruths, has become such a powerful propaganda tool. You can run, but you can't hide from the irrepressible Internet. It is out there, it will always be out there, whether you like it or not.
Information is no longer a tap that can be switched on and off at any authority's whim and fancy.
Instead, information is on tap, all the time. Postings about the rapes in Indonesia have been flooding websites for weeks. The person who sent me the fake photos repeated the act a dozen times, an act which caused my computer to crash because the images ate up megabytes and megabytes of memory. Many of my colleagues and friends received a similar e-mail. Overseas Chinese are behind the Internet websites and postings.