City says despite aid Kramat Tunggak never shared profits

JAKARTA (JP): As controversy continues over the legality of the centralization of prostitution activities, the city administration said on Monday that businesses in the capital's oldest red-light district never paid income tax to the city.

"The city administration even allocated funds for rehabilitation programs at the brothel complex every year," head of the city's social agency Edi Widodo told reporters at the City Council concerning Kramat Tunggak in North Jakarta.

He did not mention the amount of funding taken from the city budget for the programs.

Edi said the city administration never demanded that owners of the 221 brothels in the complex pay their taxes, except for property taxes which were required of all home owners in the city.

He said the funding was allocated for vocational training for the prostitutes to prepare them for the closure of the 10.4- hectare brothel complex.

The complex will be closed by the administration on Dec. 8, the day before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan begins.

"The fund was also allocated for the prostitutes' free medical health treatment, including monthly injections at a nearby clinic, as a preventative measure against them contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)."

Edi dismissed speculation the administration stopped the free- injection service beginning last month, following the announcement of the plan to close the complex.

He said that between 5 percent and 10 percent of the 350 prostitutes working in the brothels were infected with STDs, including syphilis and gonorrhea.

The social agency office has not recorded any cases of prostitutes suffering from HIV or AIDS, he added.

Edi said the administration would conduct periodic raids against street prostitutes soon after the closure of the brothel complex.

"The prostitutes will be sent to a rehabilitation center in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, or to another rehabilitation center, which will be built next year on a one-hectare plot in Kedoya subdistrict, West Jakarta."

He renewed the city administration's commitment to also close illegal brothel complexes in the city, such as Kalijodo in West Jakarta and Boker in East Jakarta.

Suggestion

Consumer protection advocate Zoemrotin K. Soesilo said the city administration should not hesitate to reopen Kramat Tunggak if its closure proved ineffective in fighting the capital's prostitution problem.

"The government must observe the impact of the closure within six months," she said in addressing a seminar on the impact of the closure of Kramat Tunggak, held at Hotel Danau Sunter in North Jakarta.

"If the prostitution problem gets worse, the government should consider reopening the red-light district."

The former chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said the city needed to tackle the root of the problem.

"Poverty is a source of prostitution. The government must improve the people's welfare if it wants to resolve the prostitution problems."

Another speaker, Subagio Partodihardjo, said the spread of STDs could not be controlled if the administration went ahead with the closing of the brothel complex.

"It's easy to provide lectures or conduct mass treatment if the prostitutes remain in the complex," said Subagio, a doctor and chairman of the Karya Bakti Foundation, the institution which regularly conducts checkups of prostitutes in Kramat Tunggak. (jun/asa)