Domestic violence increases

JAKARTA (JP): A woman activist called Wednesday for a stronger campaign against domestic violence and for the community to report cases of violence against women.

Rita Serena Kolibonso, the director of the Mitra Perempuan women's crisis center, said public assistance could help put a stop to men mistreating their wives.

"We are calling on the community to raise their awareness of domestic violence and violence against women," she said in a written statement to mark the end of 1997. "They should promptly alert (the authorities) if they come across any cases of violence."

She warned that failing to report incidents had resulted in the increasing domestic violence.

The crisis center also said that 52 of the 63 reports of violence against women that it had handled during the year were classified as domestic violence. The others were either marital or family disputes.

Forty cases were assaults, such as battering, strangling, physical and sexual abuse, rape and marital rape.

Twenty-three cases were of emotional abuse in the form of verbal abuse, intimidation, isolation, extra-marital affairs, exploitation, and men deliberately failing to financially support their wives.

The report also said that 48 of the assaulted women, or 76 percent of the victims, were housewives.

Rita said 92 percent of the victimized women learned about the center from newspapers, the rest were told about it by friends or relatives.

"Domestic violence is likely to increase despite the growth in the number of institutions that provide advocacy for women," she said.

She said 17 of the victims had sought protection from the city police and eight had gone to the military police. Nine women had asked for a divorce, and eleven left their homes willingly or were thrown out by their husbands.

She said the majority of the victims, or 35 women, were seeking legal advocacy. (09)