Inten Suweno supports raid on prostitutes

Inten Suweno supports raid on prostitutes

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Social Services Inten Suweno has
thrown her weight behind city police's ongoing anti-prostitution
campaign.

The minister was quoted by Antara late last week as saying
that she supported the operations, but at the same time concerted
efforts should be done to rehabilitate prostitutes so that they
will not resume their profession when they return to the
community.

The Ministry of Social Services has trained at least 1,000
prostitutes with several skills, such as sewing, cooking and
handicraft making, to enable them to make a decent life but the
results of the training is still far from expected because only
30 percent have left the profession.

"Even the 30 percent do not leave the profession permanently,"
said the minister, adding that some resumed their profession when
they had financial problems.

According to the minister, prostitutes will permanently leave
their professions only at the age 40 because at that time they
are not as attractive to their clients anymore.

Declaring a war against prostitution, police last month
arrested Hartono Setyawan, 42, a notorious pimp who hired high-
class call-girls, and raided brothels at the Kramat Tunggak red-
light district in North Jakarta and several massage parlors
believed to have been operating as covert brothels.

Hundreds of prostitutes and their customers were netted during
the operation bringing the sex-business in the city to a crawl,
but into prosperity in several of Jakarta's buffer zone areas,
including in Puncak.

With 7,772 prostitutes, Jakarta ranks second to East Java as
far as the number of prostitutes is concerned.

According to statistics at the Ministry of Social Services
there are 65,056 prostitutes in the country. (yns)