Husband's layoff drives woman to commit suicide

JAKARTA (JP): Three women have been found dead in separate incidents during the past two days here.

They were all believed to have committed suicide for different reasons, including because of a husband's failure to find a new job after being laid off.

Rukmini, 40, was found dead by one of her daughters, Marina, 13, at the family's house in Kelapa Dua Wetan, East Jakarta, at 5.30 a.m. yesterday.

She was hanging from a cloth attached to a ceiling tie beam in her bedroom.

According to Pasaribu, a relative, Rukmini and husband Saut Hasibuan, a recently fired public minivan driver, were involved in a day-long heated quarrel Tuesday.

"They often argued, particularly since Saut became unemployed," Pasaribu said.

About the same time Rukmini's body was found, a mother of four was fatally hit by a speeding Parung-Tanah Abang train on the Bendungan Hilir railroad track in Central Jakarta.

Eyewitnesses said Warni, 48, seemed to deliberately step in the train's path at a location not far from her house.

The migrant vegetable trader from Sragen, Central Java, apparently ignored warnings from her neighbors, a relative of the victim, Warjo, quoted eyewitnesses as saying.

"She was hit right in the head while her body was left untouched," he said. "She knew exactly that the train would hit her."

Warni passed away after being treated for two hours at the nearby Mintohardjo Naval Hospital.

"She seemed to be living without hope and talked a lot about suicide," Warjo said.

Warjo also said that Warni had often complained earlier about her small-scale businessman husband, Pardi Bagus, asking her permission to marry a young girl in Sragen.

Thai monk

Tuesday night, a woman in her 30s was found dead at her house in Jelambar, West Jakarta.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that Cong Fung Moi died after drinking a pesticide.

She might have committed suicide after receiving a summons from police over defamation allegations by a Thai man, the officer said.

"She drank the pesticide after police officers left her house," he said.

According to Aritonang, Central Jakarta police officers came to Cong's house in the Taman Harapan Indah housing estate in West Jakarta at about 11 p.m. that night.

"The officers came to inform her that she had been summoned to the police station. But the officers said that Cong had agreed to come by herself to the station the next day," he said.

But according to Cong's brother, Sugandani, Cong drank the pesticide right in front of the police officers.

"She drank two glasses of pesticide in front of the officers. We then rushed her to the nearby Atmajaya Hospital but she died there," he said.

Sugandani said the police summoned his sister because the Thai man, a monk whom he identified only as Th, 50, had reported her for allegedly defaming his name.

He said his sister sent some letters last April to several institutions, including the Indonesian Buddhist Council, stating that she had been raped by the monk.

He said Cong was very upset and disgusted that none of the institutions responded to her reports.

Suganda said the man had allegedly raped his sister last year at the Vivasana Graha meditation center in the West Java capital of Bandung.

"She was very upset when the police came to tell her that she had allegedly defamed Th's name," he said.

Aritonang declined to comment on Cong's reports of the alleged rape.

"The case is still being investigated," he said. (04/cst)