Father accused of raping children

JAKARTA (JP): The East Jakarta police are studying a housewife's report saying that her 40-year-old husband has raped their two teenage children repeatedly since they were at primary school.

"We haven't yet arrested, or questioned anybody because we're still thoroughly examining the report," East Jakarta detective chief Maj. Endang Sunjaya told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

According to Eli, her husband, a construction worker, had raped their two teenage girls, now aged 16 and 19 years old, many times since some years ago.

Accompanied by the head of her neighborhood in Cawang and one of the two victims, Eli lodged the report with the police on Thursday.

Eli said that she once saw the incest in progress but couldn't do anything because her husband threatened to beat her.

Eli and her husband have five children, two of whom are girls.

The girls, Eli said, were also threatened not to reveal to anybody what their father had done.

The younger girl told her mother that the last time she was raped by her father was late last month.

In her report, Eli accused her husband of raping their own children almost everyday, especially when she and their three sons were out.

Eli earned money for their living by washing and ironing clothes in the neighborhood.

The mother then removed her elder daughter two years ago to an Islamic boarding school in Serang, West Java, in an attempt to keep the girl away from his father.

"Investigations are on-going and we need more witnesses," officer Endang said. (bsr)