'Kidnappings reflect growing violence'

'Kidnappings reflect growing violence'

JAKARTA (JP): Two recent, highly publicized kidnappings in
Indonesia show an increasing societal tendency to settle
differences through violence, a criminologist said,

Yohanes Sutoyo of the University of Indonesia said that in the
case of a girl abducted in Jakarta earlier this month, the
kidnapper was trusted by the victim yet he resorted to violent
means to fulfill his needs, the Antara news agency reported.

Yohanes also argued that the tendency to resort to violence is
also a reflection of poor law enforcement in the country.

In the latest abduction case, police managed to free 18-year
old Erna Erliana on Sunday night at a hotel in Bandung, West
Java. The daughter of a wealthy Bandung businessman had been held
captive since Friday and her abductors had asked for Rp 94
million in ransom money from her father, H. Sofyan.

Unlike the abduction case in Jakarta in which the lone captor
was shot dead by police and the victim injured, the Bandung case
ended with the arrest of five people, including a woman, who were
believed to have been involved in the abduction.

Erna was unharmed.

According to the police, Erna played a pivotal role in her own
escape. As she was being held in her hotel room, she talked her
way out by telling one of her captors about the need for him to
make an honest living and that her father would be willing to
offer him a job.

Having convinced her captor, she was allowed to make a phone
call to her father. Quietly, she then tipped him off as to where
she was staying. (pet/emb)