Immediate steps urged against pedophilia
Immediate steps urged against pedophilia
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
The public concern over pedophilia has increased of late on Bali,
but local communities and social workers are running into
difficulties in fighting the practice.
During a meeting on child sex here on Wednesday,
representatives of 37 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
demanded the Bali administration act immediately against the
practice, and prosecute those involved in the crime.
They also demanded the maximum punishment for pedophiles, and
urged the government to deport and ban foreign pedophiles from
reentering the country after they served their sentence.
"This gathering is aimed at seeking united action by the NGOs
and concerned individuals against this kind of pornography, and
increasing the awareness of the local administration and the
general public about the seriousness of the problem.
"I don't think people really understand how serious the
situation is. The future of an entire generation of Balinese
children is at stake here," LK Suryani, a noted scholar, said.
Suryani initiated the meeting, along with the Committee
Against Sexual Abuse.
On the sidelines of the gathering, a social worker who
requested anonymity told The Jakarta Post that pedophilia on the
island was linked to poverty, and that the practice had become an
organized crime.
He said a study he conducted recently showed that most of the
pedophiles on the island were foreigners.
"They have an organization, through which they hire local
agents to scour Bali's many poor villages in Karangasem and
Bangli for potential victims. Lured by material comfort and money
for their families, the boys agree to move to Denpasar, sometimes
overseas, where they are later sexually exploited by these
pedophiles," he said.
The pedophiles are generally wealthy and generous men, and
their organization is very powerful, not only in financial terms,
but in the way it influences local officials and leaders, he
said.
"That is the main reason why it is so hard to fight them,
because they deliberately target boys from impoverished families,
which usually consider these wealthy men as sincere benefactors,"
he said.
At least 200 children from the northern coastal regency of
Buleleng have fallen prey to the pedophiles, according to him.
Another social worker, Gloria, who works at a clinic that
provides free medical treatment for poor people in Buleleng, said
during the meeting that the clinic had treated at least 21
children, most of them boys between the ages of 12 and 13, who
had been sexually abused.
She said the boys had been sodomized and some of them had
sexually transmitted diseases. And most of the children showed
symptoms of psychological trauma, she added.
"The trauma is intense. Some of them display behavioral
problems, extreme stress, fear, and have nightmares when they
sleep because of the trauma," she said.
Separately, a concerned Dutch national, Gerrit J. Th. Ten
Veen, said the most dangerous consequence of pedophilia was the
birth of a "vicious circle".
"It means that a victim of pedophilia is likely to grow up to
be a pedophile himself. We must prevent this from happening. Me
and my colleagues are here to help our Balinese friends drive all
those bastards off of this island," he said.