Husband's layoff drives woman to commit suicide

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)