Girl sets herself on fire

JAKARTA (JP): A 16-year-old girl committed suicide by setting herself ablaze in her home on Jl. Gadang in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Wednesday evening.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that the victim, identified as Jumenti Hutagaol, died from severe burns to the whole of her body.

Aritonang said the police were still investigating the motive behind the suicide, which had yet to be clarified.

Jumenti, who arrived in the capital from Medan in North Sumatra six months ago, was staying with her grandmother here.

Jumenti's body was sent to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta for a postmortem examination.

Jumenti's relatives gathered at the hospital to collect her body for burial at Budidarma cemetery in Tanjung Priok yesterday.

According to her uncle who asked not to be named, Jumenti was a cheerful girl. She was one of her grandmother's favorites.

"We can't understand why she did this to herself. She never complained of anything to her grandmother or anyone else before the incident," he said.

He said Jumenti's parents, who live in Medan, would not be able to come here to attend their daughter's burial. (edt/ivy)