More rape victims willing to speak out

More rape victims willing to speak out

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The huge increase in the number of cases reported of rape and
domestic violence against women and children is an indication of
the growing level of willingness among the victims to speak to
women's organizations about it.

Chairwoman of the Foundation for the Elimination of Violence
Against Women, Purnianti, perceives the increasing number of
reported cases as a sign of the growing level of trust among
victims toward women's centers and non-governmental
organizations.

"The situation now is like an iceberg where there are more and
more women who are starting to take actions to protect
themselves, instead of keeping the abuse a secret," said
Purnianti during a dialog held by the Mitra Perempuan crisis
center and the Ford Foundation on Wednesday.

She added that this was definite progress remembering that
such centers were new to people, especially in relation to
private issues such as rape by a spouse and domestic violence.

"The extensive familiarization drives and the emergence of
concerned non-governmental organizations have indeed played a
major role here," said Purnianti.

She cited an example of the presence of a special crisis room
(RPK) at police stations where female officers take reports and
the integrated crisis center (PKT) for women and children.

This, she said, had been helpful in encouraging the victims to
ask for help and counseling, both in terms of medical and legal
assistance.

Mitra Perempuan executive director, Rita Serena Kolibonso,
said that her organization had received 272 reports of abuse of
women and children this year from Jakarta and its surrounding
areas, a 20.35 percent increase from 226 cases in 2002.

"Most of the cases included multiple violence, meaning that
the victims have endured two or more kinds of violence, which
includes beating with or without weapons, and rape within
marriage," said Rita.

She was quick to add that the figure was just a diminutive
percentage of the overall picture considering that there were
dozens of similar organizations collecting data, not to mention
the data from the police and unreported cases.

Jakarta Police recently released their annual report on crimes
for 2003, in which the number of rape cases showed a 25 percent
increase to 134 cases from 107 last year.

Head of the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital crisis center
for women and children, Budi Sampurno, said that over 1,700 cases
of rape and sexual abuse had been reported from June 2000 to June
2003, mostly toward women.

The dialog also urged the government to swiftly take further
action on the draft of the bill on domestic violence and the
revision of the law on rape.

"We urgently need those laws to be implemented on a national
scale to provide better protection to all victims of sexual
offenses or domestic abuse, whoever they may be," said Rita.

She added that the country's commitment to international
declarations and the national agenda on stamping out violence
against women had not been consistently fulfilled.