Retarded girl commits suicide

JAKARTA (JP): A young mentally retarded girl set herself ablaze and died after nine days of treatment in hospital, relatives said over the weekend.

Tri Maslifah, 14, was scolded by her father because she had pushed her youngest brother against a wall while they were playing on Friday.

"Father doesn't love me anymore, nobody does. I'd better die," Maslifah replied as quoted by her older brother Trimanto.

Trimanto said Maslifah splashed oil all over her body and ignited it.

"We heard her screaming from the kitchen. But, it was too late. The fire had burned her face and body," he told reporters at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue.

Maslifah's father, Tasrun, of Kebun Jeruk subdistrict, West Jakarta, who is a vegetable vendor in a nearby housing complex, said Maslifah was a normal child until she had a fever when she was two years old, resulting in her becoming mentally retarded. (01)