Palestinian lawyer denies abusing Indonesian maid

JAKARTA (JP): Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia Ribbi Awad said on Friday that Palestinian police had questioned an employer over the alleged abuse of a female Indonesian migrant worker in Gaza last March.

Quoting a letter from the Police Force in the Palestine National Authority Territories, which was faxed to the Palestinian Embassy here early on Friday, the ambassador said the employer, Nihad Sheikh Daib, denied the allegation that he was involved in the wrongdoing.

"Nihad testified that he did not do any harm to the girl," Awad said, referring to the letter which was written in Arabic.

The letter also identified Nihad as a lawyer and was sent upon the instruction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It said 14- year-old migrant worker Mela Windasari Afandi suffered injuries from a suicide attempt when she threw herself from the fourth floor of her employer's apartment.

"The attempt occurred when Nihad was not in the house and he never knew the reason for it.

"Neither he nor his family mistreated her," stated the letter, which was signed by the Palestinian police chief Gen. Ghazi Al Jabali.

The letter said further that Mela was unable to adapt to the new environment in Gaza and that she began complaining of homesickness before going on hunger strike.

When interviewed at the National Police's Soekanto Hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta, on Friday, Mela strongly denied the statement from the Palestinian police. She maintained she never committed suicide nor went on a hunger strike.

"I fell from the third floor after I slipped when I tried to flee from my employers. I lost my balance and fell to the ground," she said.

Mela admitted that Nihad, her fourth boss, was a kind man. "It was his wife who abused me."

The girl's condition deteriorated on Friday. She has decubitus (an ulcer) on her back and as she had been in bed for a long time, while her swollen legs could not be moved.

Mela claimed she had been beaten several times by her employers and agency's staff in Gaza in March. She previously said she had been beaten in her first three days there, just because she had diarrhea and had asked to return home.

She was treated at the Al Gaza Hospital (the Palestine police identified it as As-Shifa Hospital) where she was operated on, apparently to insert a metal plate into a broken bone, without her consent.

She also said that it was a staff member at her agency, identified as Mr. Iyad, who paid the hospital bills.

"My photograph even appeared in the local newspaper, brought by someone who sympathized with me," she said.

Asked why the Palestinian police's version was different from that of Mela, Ribbi said: "I am not defending the Palestinian police but that is the report I received."

The ambassador said while quoting the letter that it was Arafat who paid all the expenses at As-Shifa hospital.

"It is not because we feel we were guilty, but merely on humanitarian grounds," he said.

Regarding the surgery, Awad said the hospital had to take immediate action to save the patient. "She had no relatives there and she could not speak Arabic well."

Ribbi also said that Mela's case was the first of its kind in Palestine, and had led the government to act more seriously in handling migrant workers in the future.

"Our government will implement stricter controls upon the arrival of migrant workers. Moreover, it is a new phenomenon to find Palestinian families with servants," he said.

Mela's lawyer, Munir Achmad, said he was not satisfied with the Palestinian government's reaction.

"The employer should not be just released like that as he violated the law by employing an underage worker.

"Moreover, Mela had no working permit as she entered Palestine on a tourist visa. If he (Nihad) is a lawyer, he should know the regulations," he said. (ind)