Abused children face lack of medical and legal protection

Abused children face lack of medical and legal protection

By Santi W.E. Soekanto

Unquestionably, it would be easy to find more pleasant themes to
write about to mark National Children's Day. In the following
couple of articles, however, we deliberately choose to spotlight
the question of child abuse as a reminder that some darker sides
to the lives of children still exist in this country.

JAKARTA (JP): "My eldest sister helped her husband rape me
when I was 12," Lina said, tears swimming in her eyes. "My breast
hadn't developed, I hadn't even had my period yet."

Recounting, for the first time, the abuse she experienced at
the hands of the people she trusted most, Lina (not her real
name) could not help wonder at her ability to endure life.

"My sister bribed me, offering anything to me, stroking my
cheeks while holding my hands tightly so that her husband could
freely take me," Lina said.

Lina said she could not tell her mother, who placed her in the
care of the elder sister so that Lina could continue her
education, because "she would have dropped dead".

In hindsight, though, Lina suspected that her widowed mother
might have sensed that something horrible was going on but chose
not to rock the boat. "Perhaps she just could not handle it,"
Lina said wistfully, "So I had no one to turn to."

Lina survived the months of ordeal but has never stopped
wishing that she was dead at the time. Chain-smoking her way
through her story, she described how she thought children who
died in many violent circumstances were "luckier" than she was.

"At least they're dead and don't have to suffer any longer,"
she said. "I'm alive, and the pain just won't go away, gnawing at
me unceasingly."

Lina, a petite woman in her late thirties, is now married and
has four children. "But that's because I was lucky enough to find
a man who would accept me, a 'damaged good'," she said, her
laughter filled with bitterness.

Lina said she has stopped blaming her elder sister. She was so
insecure in her marriage that she quickly agreed to the man's
demand for Lina's body in exchange for his promise that he would
not walk out on her. Lina, though, has never stopped punishing or
blaming herself for enduring the horror silently.

"Even now I can't really enjoy life. I often bleed after
having sex, so I try to avoid it altogether, and my husband has
been living like a hermit."

Neglected terrain

Horrifying as it is, Lina's story is not unique. She is only
one among nobody knows how many victims of physical, sexual and
psychological abuse, as well as neglect and deprivation.

Eva (also not her real name), a young woman in her early
twenties, was a victim of incest committed by her much older
brother when she was five. She still cannot forgive her brother,
or her parents for not noticing what went on. She cannot forgive
herself, either.

"I must have been a very bad girl to have this thing happened
to me," she said sadly. "I feel like I'm so dirty, that I can't
face God and say my prayers. I'm through being angry at God for
letting this happen to me and I want to be able to come closer to
Him, but I just can't."

Teenaged Supriyatna was punished, sometimes beaten, by his
stepfather if he failed to come home with a certain sum of money
from selling the newspapers.

He started earning his keep in his twice married mother's
household when he was seven and saw his younger brother, Atin,
die of infections and malnutrition. He cried when he recounted
how much he missed his little brother who used to tag along when
Supriyatna peddled the papers.

The stories of Lina, Eva and Supriyatna show that children
between the ages of one and 15, nearly 40 percent of the
country's population of 185 million, are often the most
defenseless victims of adults and society. As Lina says, the
children don't always know where to turn for help and therefore
suffer in silence.

Sometimes society is so deaf that it doesn't hear even if the
children are able to cry for help. Their stories have not been
told often enough to elicit people's attention. Despite growing
concern, the problem of child abuse is perhaps one of the most
neglected terrains.

Report

The Center for Information of Children at the Foundation for
the Welfare of Indonesian Children stated in a 1993 report that
in 1992, 43 infants were murdered, mostly by their own mothers
who were ashamed of having babies out of wedlock.

These cases, quoted in a book entitled Anak dan Kejahatan
(Children and Crime, 1993), were included only because they made
the press. The center did not give estimates as to the actual
rate of infanticides.

The report went on to say that 58 children in 1992 were
murdered in crimes perpetrated by 60 people, mostly adults.

Between January and November of the same year, the press
reported 63 cases of sexual abuse involving 100 victims under the
age of 13. One case involved 11 children who were raped by one
adult male. Most of the offenders were people close to the
children, such as the father or the grandfather.

Kalyanamitra, a leading women's group, gave an even bleaker
picture when it reported in November 1992 that 151 cases of child
rape occurred in that year alone.

Ironically, the community, which should have the ability to
protect the children, may not be able to do much. Cases of abuse
may go undetected because various constraints prevent physicians
or pediatricians from detecting or identifying victims.

Among the reasons is that not all abused children are brought
to medical attention; even if they are, not all doctors are
trained to be sensitive to the signs that indicate abuse.

Most medical experts agree that the signs of abuse include
repeated injuries, unusual reactions to injuries, delay in
reporting accidents, burns, black eyes, bruises with finger marks
on the head and face, rib fractures due to excessive shaking, and
multiple injuries.

Even with the presence of some of the signs, however, the
small ratio of doctors serving the population may make them too
busy and perhaps too harried to notice.

Unjust justice

When it comes to legal protection, the battered children do
not fare any better. Indonesia does not recognize mandatory
reporting for cases where abuse is suspected, according to legal
expert Dr. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo from the University of
Indonesia.

In countries such as the United States and Malaysia, where a
mandatory reporting stipulation is applied, doctors, teachers or
other people who suspect that abuse may be occurring must lodge a
report with social workers or other authorities.

"We can't apply it here, it won't be effective," Harkrisnowo
told The Jakarta Post, citing society's inclination to view
children as belonging to parents and that parents therefore have
ultimate power over them, as the most obvious obstacles.

"People think that whatever happens inside a house is the
business of its occupants," she said. "Besides, abusive parents
can always say that it's their own children they're beating."

Likewise for the sexual abuse of children. Harkrisnowo cited a
case in which the judge ruled that the perpetrator was not guilty
of rape because "the victim's hymen was not ruptured".

"Her virginity is still intact, she's still a virgin," the
judge was quoted as ruling by Harkrisnowo.

"This is not a matter of a ruptured or non-ruptured hymen,"
Harkrisnowo lashed out. "A rape is still a rape, a torture of
both the child's body and psyche."

Criminologist Suziani wrote in an essay in Anak dan Kejahatan
that children who are raped have fallen into what she calls
"structural victimization".

"As females, the girls are victims of male offenders; as
children, they are victims of adults; as members of society, they
are victims of the patriarchal structure of society," Suziani
said.

She suggested that crises centers for children be established
immediately, incorporating the expertise of pediatricians,
psychologists, criminologists and lawyers. She also called for
balanced press reports which will not contribute to the stigma
already faced by sexually abused children.

Harkrisnowo called for harsher punishments for child abusers
and molesters, and for stronger campaigns against the violation.
She also suggested that efforts to sensitize the community toward
the abuse problem begin with teachers and religious leaders.

She warned that bruises may soon heal, but the psychological
damage very often stays with the victims for the rest of their
lives.