Help starving inmates!

Panti Sosial Bina Laras 3 is an institution for mentally ill people scooped up from the streets of Jakarta. The government funding it receives amounts to Rp 1,400 (10 cents U.S.) per day per inmate. It was previously supported mostly by ethnic Chinese people. Last month, 220 inmates received enough rice for 10 days only, enough eggs for half an egg each for the month and no vegetables, fruit, tofu or meat of any kind. They are without exception covered with scabies.

A small group of expatriate volunteers are trying to help with food, some medicines and some money, but it is a drop in the ocean. The people are painfully thin, almost all of them look like concentration camp victims.

It was recently reported that due to an interview which appeared on Australian television, the starving animals at Taman Safari are being shipped sixteen tons of meat, with donations pouring in to help them in the future. The people of Panti Laras 3 are also caged and starving and they are human beings.

CHRISTINE BURNS

Jakarta