Plan for prostitute relocation criticized

JAKARTA (JP): Plans to move the city-sanctioned red-light district in North Jakarta to the Seribu Islands might lead to a new cycle of arrests for prostitutes, say sources close to the issue.

One way out of the hopeless cycle, said an official on Saturday, would be to let them organize: "They could regulate themselves to make health monitoring easier and help them keep track of their members."

The official, who requested anonymity, said he was responding to inquiries on the municipality's possible move to shift the Kramat Tunggak prostitution complex to the Seribu Islands, which lie north of Jakarta.

Without other acceptable means, the official said: "We will have to step up raids because the women will surely resist the move, or will escape back to the mainland."

If the move goes ahead, the future income of the 1,800 women in the complex is in doubt because customers would have to take expensive boat trips to the islands.

Plans to move the complex, officially a rehabilitation center, are being driven by the protests of local residents. Kramat Tunggak is no longer isolated like it was in the 1970s when it was considered an ideal place to centralize prostitution and rehabilitate prostitutes.

The deputy governor in charge of public welfare, R.S. Museno, said yesterday that action against prostitutes would never be effective as long as men could not control their urges.

"But I haven't looked into the idea of self-regulation. What would be the good of it? I think the social agency is already doing increasing HIV-awareness and trying to make them leave the business," Museno said, referring to Koran reading and sewing classes which are provided by a social agency in Kramat Tunggak.

The prostitutes may not have had time to discuss the planned move. But they say they do not believe it.

"It's an old story, we've heard it since the 1980s," scoffed one woman.

Kramat Tunggak, with 250 'guesthouses', is home to thousands of women, at least during their productive years.

Scores of vendors live near the area. A public bus driver said Saturday that local drivers would lose a large part of their income if the complex was moved.

One vendor said Saturday that every time news broke on a potential move, the guesthouse's owners renovated their buildings.

"It would cost a lot of money to tear down the buildings," the vendor said. The two-story buildings contain bars, dance floors and up to 20 rooms, which are securely enclosed in floor-to- ceiling iron bars.

The land at the 11.5 hectare complex is valued at Rp 300,000 per square meter.

A social worker involved in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, Teguh Budiono, said the women would resist the move or run away.

Teguh questioned the possibility of the council's proposal that pimps not be allowed to operate at the proposed island brothels.

"The whole complex is a big business from the beer and room rents alone. Besides, the women have to settle debts of hundreds of thousands of rupiah to the parties who let them work there."

Given the likelihood that the women would scatter if the complex was moved, Teguh said that it would be much harder to monitor the women to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

He said that volunteers from non-governmental organizations had helped recruit "peer educators" to spread safe sex awareness among the women. (anr)