Hookers embarrass governor

JAKARTA (JP): Riau Governor H. Soeripto has admitted that he is often embarrassed to stay at hotels in the province's outlying islands of Batam, Bintan and Karimun because they were often "infested" with prostitutes looking for potential customers.

"To be honest I'm embarrassed to stay in hotels when I go to those areas because there are so many floozies walking around with foreign tourists who are staying there," he said as quoted by Antara from Pekanbaru, Riau, after swearing in Rustam Effendy as the head of the provincial social affairs office.

According to the governor the three islands, particularly at weekends, are frequented by clients and customers seeking sexual transactions.

"Looking at such a situation I feel disgruntled and rather helpless because I have failed in my duty as head of the area," he remarked.

Soeripto said many of the young women trading "their wares" in the area hail from outside Riau and that most of the customers were men from nearby Singapore.

"After receiving a telephone call (on Friday) from tourists from our neighboring country, they stay in with them till Sunday evening," he explained.

In Medan, North Sumatra, the preliminary results of a study show that there are between 600 and 700 girls aged between 12 and 17 working as prostitutes in the city.

M. Jonni, program officer of the Indonesia Children's Advocacy Group said these children were commonly found in shopping centers, discotheques and even hotels.

What is most disconcerting, he said, was the fact that many were actually coerced into working as young prostitutes.

"It has been proven that there is a recruitment mechanism with backers, agents and even a sophisticated distribution chain," he explained. (mds)