Bali, Batam islands notorious for child abuse

Tiarma Siboro and Rita A. Widhiana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar

The islands of Bali and Batam are the most notorious places in the country for the sexual abuse of children, often at the hands of foreigners, according to children's activists.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, the executive director of the Children in Need Special Protection Center, said numerous children from these islands were smuggled abroad by a well-organized syndicate, often with the help of local officials.

He said most of the smuggled children were between the ages of 12 and 16, but on their documents their ages were marked up by officials.

Some of the children are sent abroad with the consent of their parents, he said.

"The syndicates, of course, earn millions of U.S. dollars each year from child trafficking, and it is a crime that we have failed to stop," Arist said.

A reporter from The Jakarta Post in Bali found that a number of pedophiles attracted their victims by doing aid work involving children. Some of these pedophiles even unofficially adopt their victims and have the children stay in their houses.

Arist said he estimated that more than 300,000 Indonesian children were victimized annually, mostly sexually.

"This is a systematic crime involving various parties, ranging from parents and neighborhood leaders, to pedophile syndicates.

"And Indonesia does not have the legal system to protect these children," Arist said.

Indonesia ratified the UN Convention on Child Protection in 1990. But it was only in 2001 that legislators began deliberating a child protection bill.

When the deliberations were finally completed, the formal approval of the bill was put on hold because of one contentious article that drew criticism from various religious groups, including the Indonesian Ulemas Council.

The article in question is Article 37, Paragraph 3, which stipulates that adoptive parents "should be of the same religion as the adopted child". Religious groups were opposed to the word "should", saying it was open to interpretation.

The bill was initially scheduled to be approved by the House of Representatives on July 23, to coincide with National Children's Day, but was postponed indefinitely.

To better protect children, Arist and fellow children's activist Seto Mulyadi, from the National Commission for Child Protection, urged the House on Thursday to approve the already debated bill on child protection.

They met with House Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who was accompanied by two members of House Commission VII for population and welfare -- Aisyah Hamid Baidlawi of the Golkar Party and Rekso Ageng Herman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Arist told the legislators it was urgent for the House to pass the bill, even without Article 37, to provide legal protection for children.

He contended that the country's Criminal Code was not able to protect children adequately, something the child protection bill would do.

Under the bill, for example, those guilty of sexually exploiting children could face a 20-year prison sentence.

Muhaimin said the House's Steering Committee would meet on Thursday to discuss which bills would be deliberated during the House's current session. He said that he hoped the committee would include the child protection bill on its priority list.