Condoms spark controversy

MAUMERE, East Nusa Tenggara: The Indonesian Family Planning Association has come under fire for distributing free condoms in this predominantly Catholic region.

Critics have accused the association, which embarked on an anti-AIDS campaign in the Belu regency, of encouraging prostitution.

The debate started last week when the association's activists distributed free condoms at a meeting with rural women.

"Offer these (condoms) to your man before you go to sleep," Petrus Muti Parera, the association's secretary in Belu, told the women.

The action prompted a heated debate as some participants were offended by being given the contraceptives. They charged that Petrus had treated them as if they were sex workers.

Belu regent Servatius Muti Parera has said that the distribution of condoms was "illegal" because it was not sanctioned by the government.

The bishop of Atambua, Mgr. Anton Pain Ratu, said the association should not have forced the women to accept the latex because not all of them had sufficient sex education.

Besides, he said, the villagers were not aware of the association's good intentions behind the campaigns. (yac)