Neighbors foil suicide attempt

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)