Neighbors foil suicide attempt

BOGOR (JP): A teenage girl attempted to commit self-immolation in an empty building in Bogor on Monday morning, apparently due to long-standing depression and perceived lack of attention from her family.

Seventeen-year-old Santi Purnamasari's attempt to end her life, however, was frustrated as local residents doused the flames and rushed her to the Indonesian Red Cross Hospital. They were too late, however, to prevent the girl, a high-school dropout, from suffering severe burns all over her body.

A resident of Laladon village, Ciomas, Bogor, Santi had spent the night with her distant relatives in Cilendek Timur before she soaked herself with kerosene and struck a match the next morning.

Kiki Handayani, 17, her cousin, said at the hospital that she did not know exactly what the real problem was, but that Santi had originally planned to return home before her attempted suicide.

She revealed that last year Santi had been kidnapped by a thug identified as Agus for nine months. She had not returned home despite her parents' payment of a Rp 3 million ransom. The girl at last arrived home in December 2000.

Kiki said that Santi, who used to be quiet and obedient to her parents, had since become delinquent and frequently left home without explanation or warning. She also smoked.

"She admitted to having worked at a discotheque in Bandung during her nine-month disappearance," added Kiki.

"Santi may be afraid to tell her parents all she has done while she was away, and once she told me that she was hooked on drugs, which could be the reason for what she did," Kiki concluded. (21)