Cipinang residents protest presence of brothel

JAKARTA (JP): Fourteen residents from two community units in Cipinang subdistrict, East Jakarta, complained to city councilors that they were disturbed by the presence in the area of a 20-room brothel fronting as a boarding house.

Five members of the City Council's Commission E on social matters met with the delegation over the weekend to hear their problem.

"We demand that the boarding house be shut down," Hantono, who lives in the neighborhood of the house, told the councilors.

He said the boarding house, a shabby two-storied house located on Jl. Persahabatan Raya 16, used to house the Bumi Ayu massage parlor. He charged that the business had offered services other than massage.

Hantono said the house, which has not been used as a massage parlor since its license expired, is not only a den for prostitutes, but also for gamblers and drunkards, and possibly drug pushers. "You can check this out at the East Jakarta police office," he said.

Eko, another resident, said the owner of the massage parlor initially got the license to operate by persuading illiterate neighbors to put their marks on letters of approval.

"Now that the license has expired, the parlor has been turned into a boarding house. But this is just another ruse to mask the brothel," Eko said, adding that there are about 15 women working there as prostitutes.

Eko said the owner of the house, a man named Leo, was backed by a lawyer, who is linked through a relative to "Suhana Associates."

In response to the complaint, the city councilors said that they would investigate further, prior to asking the municipal administration for an order to shut down the boarding house.

When asked by The Jakarta Post about the complaints, some of the young women living at the boarding house said that it was just gossip. They declined to comment any further and referred all questions to Leo.

Tisna, a food vendor who sleeps at the boarding house and oversees the parking of the vehicles for visitors, confirmed that the house is illegally used for prostitution.

He said that the rooms are rented out at Rp 7,500 each for a few hours. "The women can be taken out," he said.

Tika, a housewife whose home is located next to the place, said that she is fed up with the night-long noise coming from next door, including "the terrible music, indecent screams and raucous laughter."

"They played dangdut music very loudly all night a few days ago," she said.

Another neighbor, whose home is just behind the boarding house, said that she has heard little noise since the residents lodged a formal complaint to the owner last week.

"Probably, because the owner increased the height of the wall by about a meter," she said.

She also said that once a used woman's tampon was thrown into her kitchen. Tika, the housewife next door, also complained that the garbage produced by the girls often spills into her yard. (06/05)