Children's Day observed amid horror of abuse

Children's Day observed amid horror of abuse

JAKARTA (JP): The capital will celebrate National Children's
Day today in a somber mood due to the recent escalation in the
number of street boys who have been sodomized.

And worse news is that at least eight boys, believed to be
poorly-educated and from poor families have been found killed
with their stomachs torn out and throats slashed. The perpetrator
of these serial killings is still unknown.

As of yesterday, police and forensic scientists have
identified dozens of street boys who had been sodomized by
people in their neighborhoods.

Most of the boys are teenagers who have left their poor
parents in their hometowns and come to the capital to earn money
for themselves.

For almost two-thirds of the day they work as street traders
or beggars to earn what little money they can.

In interviews with The Jakarta Post yesterday, most street
boys said they had no idea about what sodomy was until they were
picked up by the police for questioning on Saturday.

"I don't like being dibo'olin (the slang for sodomized) and I
didn't know that it was a crime," said Ht, 12, who claimed to
have been sodomized twice.

"What I felt at the time was pain," said Am, 14, who
experienced anal sex once. "I hope that it won't happen to me
again."

"I didn't know what it was all about until it happened to me
some time ago," said To, 13. "It was painful in the beginning but
I had no way of getting away from the man. Moreover, I needed
money to survive," said the boy, who claimed to have been
sodomized almost every day since he was nine.

According to the teenage victims, they were paid between Rp
500 and Rp 2,000 (US 15 and 60 cents) a time.

"I used the money for lunch and cigarettes," said Purnomo, 16,
who said he was sodomized once for Rp 2,000 last year at a park
in Central Jakarta by a man who pointed a sharp blade in his
face.

In many cases, the suspects lured them with the carrot and
stick approach of a small amount of money and threats.

Psychologist Sarlito W. Sarwono said the helpless street
children were easy targets for the pedophiles.

"They could be easily trapped with a tiny deal and a bit of
trickery," Sarlito said.

According to the boys, they were forced to serve the suspects,
who were sometimes armed.

"I couldn't get away from the man because he threatened to
kill me if I left the house," said To, who left his hometown in
Brebes, Central Java, at the age of nine because he was bored of
watching his mother.

To is one of the boys who were sodomized hundreds of times by
a 60-year-old man, residing at a small house in Pondok Gede.

"He did it to me almost everyday," he said.

To said that he could only leave the house on Saturday when
the police came to arrest the man, better known as Babe (father).

The suspect is now in the East Jakarta police precinct, along
with three other men, who have all been charged with having sex
with underage boys.

The police had also questioned them for their alleged roles in
the serial killings of the eight sodomized victims. None of them
have yet been charged in connection with the killings.

Police said that they will continue to collect as much
information as possible from the street boys in order to trace
the suspect of the killings.

However the street boys said that the police work had
disturbed their daily money-earning activities.

"We now only have few hours to earn money on the street
because we spent most of the day at the police station," said
Purnomo, who sometimes earned money through prostitution. (bsr)