Maid tries to kill her newborn baby

JAKARTA (JP): A housemaid who claimed to work for the Philippine Embassy was detained on Tuesday evening for allegedly trying to kill her one-day-old baby at the Menteng public health clinic (Puskesmas) on Jl. Menteng Raya, Central Jakarta.

Menteng Police substation chief Comr. Eky H.S. said on Wednesday the 20-year-old maid, identified as Ida, was caught red-handed trying to murder her newborn at 6:30 p.m. in the Puskesmas rest room.

Eky said the maid, who was still receiving medical treatment at the Puskesmas, had been taken into custody and would be questioned in connection with the alleged attempted murder.

"The saved baby, currently undergoing medical treatment at the Puskesmas, is now in police protection," he told The Jakarta Post by telephone.

"Although the baby was saved, the police will continue to process the mother because she tried to kill her own baby."

The alleged murder attempt was uncovered when a cleaning service boy at the Puskesmas reported to one of the clinic's security guards that he had heard a baby crying in the rest room, the door of which had been locked from the inside.

After breaking down the door, the security guard and the cleaning boy reportedly found the maid strangling her baby while holding its head under water in the toilet bowl. They took the baby from her.

They then reported the case to the Menteng Police.

Separately, Ida, who was still recovering after giving birth at the Menteng Puskesmas, told the Post that she had tried to kill her baby because she was too ashamed to face society because the man who had impregnated her would not take responsibility.

She declined to identify the man, saying he had disappeared. She said she would leave the baby's fate in the hands of the police.

Eky said that Ida claimed she worked at the Philippine Embassy on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta.

When contacted by the Post, Philippine Embassy Vice ConsulZaldy Patron said that the embassy did not employ an Indonesian maid named Ida.

"We don't employ any housemaids from Indonesia at this embassy, but we have no knowledge of whether she might work with individuals of the embassy staff," she said.(01)