Few women trafficking cases go to court

Few women trafficking cases go to court

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Only eight of 286 cases of trafficking of women reported to
the police during the last two years have gone to court,
according to North Sumatra's Kaukus Perempuan, a coalition of
non-governmental organizations dealing with women's concerns.

"Only three of the eight cases were ruled in favor of the
victims of violence," Kaukus Perempuan coordinator Darmayanti
Lubis said in a one-day seminar on the trafficking of women and
children.

The seminar sponsored by Kaukus Perempuan was held at Garuda
Plaza Hotel here on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, the victims only won the case on paper,
meaning that they never actually received compensation as ordered
by the court," said Darmayanti.

She cited a case involving a plaintiff named Pipi and a pimp
named Mami Merri as the accused. "The court ruled in favor of
Pipi and ordered Merri to pay Rp 26 million to Pipi in
compensation. But Merri has yet to pay Pipi a single rupiah."

Darmayanti did not reveal when the trial was held.

She said the point was that law enforcement was still very
weak, moreover the police were insensitive in dealing with
trafficking of women and children.

North Sumatra is one of several areas in the country where
women and child trafficking is rampant.

Most of women and girls have been illegally "exported" as sex
workers.

Observers allege that the illegal business involves several
parties, including the authorities, in North Sumatra. Therefore,
eradicating the practice in this province has been very
difficult.

Meanwhile, Irma Alamsyah, an expert on legal and political
affairs at the office of the State Minister for Women's
Empowerment, said in the seminar that in 2000 alone there were
1,476 cases of trafficking of women and children in the country.

"Surabaya ranked first with 309 cases, Medan second with 282
cases followed by Manado with 175 cases, Bandung 157, Makassar
151, Padang 147, Denpasar 129 and Jakarta 126 cases," she said,
citing National Police records.

"Only 1,094 of the total cases went to court, while in 1999
1,390 of 1,712 cases were brought to court," she said.

"Economic woes and limited employment opportunities have
triggered trafficking of women," she said. "The people's low
level of education and poor law enforcement have contributed to
the worsening situation. Indonesia is now finding it difficult to
eradicate the crime."

Irma told The Jakarta Post after the seminar that the
government had never dealt with the problem of women and child
trafficking seriously. "The yardstick is that the business, both
domestic and overseas, is still rampant."

"There are a total of 6,809 sex workers in Malaysia; 4,268 of
them are Indonesians. While the U.S. Department of State said
that 20 percent of five million migrant workers are women
illegally trafficked from Indonesia."

Chief of North Sumatra Police Detectives Sr. Comr. Iskandar
Hasan, who also spoke in the seminar, said that the women and
child trafficking route was from Medan, Tanjung Balai Karimun
(Riau) and Batam (also in the province of Riau).

"It is very possible that the women and children are smuggled
to Malaysia and Thailand."