Parents of kidnapped children found<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta police detectives have finally
\nfound the parents of Rona Anugraini, the only girl among nine
\nvictims kidnapped for several years by two brothers.<\/p>\n
There were mixed feelings for the girl, now aged 14, when
\npolice took her to meet her mother on Tuesday evening at the
\nCentral Jakarta police precinct headquarters.<\/p>\n
The girl, who had been separated from her parents since 1991,
\ngave no expression at all when her mother, Nurhaji Hutagalung,
\n44, attempted to hug her. She looked confused when police brought
\nher to meet her ailing father at the family residence in Gambir.<\/p>\n
The girl, called Nina by her kidnappers, asked the police to
\nlet her return to the kidnappers. She said she still loved her
\nfoster mother, Erah, 35, who had taken care of her for the past
\nnine years.<\/p>\n
\"When I saw her, I was quite sure that she is my daughter,
\nRona, even before I saw the scar on her right knee,\" Nurhaji told
\nreporters on Wednesday when she was summoned for questioning by
\nthe police.<\/p>\n
The finding of Rona's parents started Monday when police
\nbrought Rona and one of her kidnappers, Agus Surya, 38, to the
\nSenen area where the latter had abducted the girl. She was at the
\ntime playing near her parents' small food kiosk.<\/p>\n
At the site, police learned that the kiosk had disappeared.
\nThe officers then asked local vendors to help them identify the
\nparents of Rona.<\/p>\n
One of the street vendors then summoned Rona's parents at
\ntheir residence in Gambir.<\/p>\n
According to Rona's father, Fauzi Azis Hutagalung, 56, a
\nretired soldier, his searching for Rona, the third of their four
\nchildren, had cost him four of the family's five restaurants and
\na car. His health had also deteriorated since Rona's abduction.<\/p>\n
However, he added that he had vowed to find her and
\ncontinuously prayed her safety.<\/p>\n
Police earlier said that most of the nine children kidnapped
\nby Agus and his brother Sam Budi were street children and were
\nfrom poor families.<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday, the police had not yet determined the legal
\narticles violated by the two men, saying that the case had not
\nyet been fully investigated.<\/p>\n
No harrasment<\/p>\n
A day earlier, the police questioned Agus's wife, Erah, who
\nrepeatedly claimed to know nothing about the abduction.<\/p>\n
Erah insisted that her husband had never mistreated the
\nchildren, including sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
\"I've never heard the children say anything bad about my
\nhusband or being mistreated, so I assumed that he really loved
\nthem,\" she told the investigating officials on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Erah was brought from her home town, Kuningan, some 270
\nkilometers east of the capital, after police arrested her husband
\nAgus and his brother Sambudi on Monday for allegedly kidnapping
\nchildren from various parts of the capital.<\/p>\n
Police also questioned two of the nine kidnapped victims,
\nKusnadi and Opik, who affirmed Erah's statement. The two teenaged
\nboys were kidnapped last year while playing in the Senen area of
\nCentral Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Of the nine abducted victims, seven were street children and
\ntwo came from shopkeeper families. Police picked up Kusnadi and
\nOpik from the Pulogadung area on Tuesday while they were selling
\ncigarettes on the street.<\/p>\n
Erah, who married Agus in 1982, told police she had not had a
\nhappy married life because her husband was impotent and she had
\nno children. She said that Agus, who was eager to have a child,
\nhad brought home different children whom he claimed to be the
\noffspring of his relatives.<\/p>\n
\"I believed what he said, so I took care of them, especially
\nRona. I treated them like my own family members,\" Erah explained<\/p>\n
Erah's statement contradicted that of Budiman's, one of the
\nvictims police found on Monday. Budiman said that Agus had
\nsometimes treated him queerly, kissing him in private places.<\/p>\n
Agus denied that he had intended to sexually harass Budiman,
\nsaying that he kissed him as an expression of his love for the
\nboy.<\/p>\n
\"I loved him dearly and I had no intention to harm him,\" he
\nremarked.<\/p>\n
He also told police that he often disagreed with his wife
\nabout bringing home the children, despite the fact that he could
\nsupport them.<\/p>\n
Kusnadi and Opik, who lived with Agus for a few months, told
\npolice they earned their own living as street beggars, but
\nsometimes visited Agus when they needed money.<\/p>\n
Agus, a cigarette kiosk owner, said that despite his meager
\nincome, he did his best to take care of the children he had
\nabducted. He sent the boys to Magelang, a town in Central Java,
\nbecause they were better taken care of by his brother, Sambudi.<\/p>\n
Agus said the other victims -- Andri, Ari, Yudi and Dede, aged
\nbetween seven and thirteen -- were also street children when he
\npicked them up.<\/p>\n
Sambudi, a farmer from Magelang, was willing to raise the
\nstreet children because he himself was childless despite years of
\nmarried life.(06)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/parents-of-kidnapped-children-found-1447893297",
"image": ""
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