RI not immune to child prostitution

The World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children wound up in Stockholm yesterday. The gathering, the first of its kind on the subject, adopted a declaration and an agenda setting out the problems, challenges and measures that should be taken by states all over the world to curb the problem. To mark the event The Jakarta Post looks at the escalating problem of sexual exploitation of children in Indonesia. The following report, and two related articles on Page 7, were prepared by Arief Suhardiman, I. Christianto, Dwi Atmanta, Johannes Simbolon, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Stevie Emilia and Yoko N. Sari. There are also related stories on Page 2 and 9.

JAKARTA (JP): Just because child prostitution is rarely discussed openly it does not mean that it does not exist in Indonesia.

It does, perhaps not on the same scale as in the Philippines or Thailand, but it is a problem that should not be dismissed lightly.

Child prostitution may not yet have evolved into a detectable industry in Indonesia, but bustling Jakarta is already sated with borderline cases, creating a fertile ground for future growth.

The few cases of child prostitution that have come to light in the past few months should ring alarm bells.

Last month, a 45-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping his two daughters and then selling one of them to a pimp for Rp 40,000 (US$17). One of the daughters, who is 16, has since been rescued by police from working at the Rawa Malang prostitution complex in North Jakarta.

Then there is the grizzly story of the recently arrested pedophile who admitted to killing 10 of his victims.

Apart from taking in to account those already working as prostitutes, the large number of street children and growing incidence of sexual abuse occurring within families, are indications of increasing commercial sexual exploitation of children, experts believe.

Researchers who have conducted studies on the subject say the problem cannot be neglected.

"When we did a research in Medan some years ago, we found 12 prostitutes aged below 14 without difficulty," said Irwanto, director of the research center at Atmajaya University in Jakarta.

Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, said child prostitution has reached an alarming level.

"One independent survey found that between 40 and 50 percent of street-children in Jakarta have been sodomized," said Meliala.

Both researchers said the government must act to contain the problem, lest Indonesia receives spill-overs from its neighbors.

Meliala warned that international pedophile syndicates may already be preying on Indonesian children. "The danger is by no means fictitious. Cases of abduction and smuggling of children and women laborers from Indonesia have occurred. The smuggling of children for prostitution is also not impossible," he said.

Geographical proximity looks to be a strong factor in pushing Indonesia along a similar route as its Southeast Asian neighbors, where the escalation of child prostitution has been closely linked to flourishing tourism industries.

Unicef, the United Nations children's charity, estimated that there were one million child prostitutes in Asia in 1994, with Thailand accounting for 300,000, the Philippines more than 100,000 and Vietnam 40,000.

There is no official data on the number of child prostitutes in Indonesia.

Although Indonesia is not reputed to be a popular destination for sex tourists, the region's general reputation and prospects for "something new" besides regular sun-bathing and sightseeing continue to lure tourists to the region.

The law of supply and demand may very well prove the final catalyst for the growth of a bonafide child sex industry here.

Fear of AIDS also explains the sudden burst in child prostitution. Many people turn from adult to child prostitutes because they believe that sex with a child poses less risk of infection, Irwanto said.

Meliala says there are two kinds of child prostitute in Indonesia -- quasi and real ones.

The first category includes young girls, usually junior high school students, who roam shopping malls looking for partners. "Their primary goal is fun, rather than money," he said.

There are also boys in this category. They usually gather at Lapangan Banteng square in Jakarta and in many places in Bali.

Real prostitutes tend to come from poorer families. They are often trapped in an oppressive structure, from which they can rarely escape.

"Some of them are sent to pimps by their parents because of poverty. And that is often after their parents have already raped them," said Meliala.

"Many street-children, who fall prey to pedophiles, can also be categorized as real prostitutes although they don't make a living by it," he said.

Another factor contributing to the growth of the sexual exploitation of children in Indonesia is society's acceptance of marriage between people who are barely adults.

A government survey in 1994 found that 29 percent of marriages in Indonesia involved women below the age of 16. In some regions in West Java, the rate is 40 percent of marriages.

Many of these marriages end in divorce.

While child prostitutes are not as visible as older ones who walk the streets at night in many Jakarta suburbs, a number of places are already becoming notorious for young call girls and boys.

Thirteen-year old Edo, who had lived on the streets of Jakarta for two-years, cited the Kota train station, the bus terminal in Blok M, and Lapangan Banteng as "pick up" places.

Edo is now under the care of the Graha Asih foundation, a social institution for street children in Jakarta.

Places like the authorized Kramat Tunggak red light district are also said to offer child prostitutes.

M. Sihombing of the City Social Services Agency, however, insisted that the administration maintains strict requirements for prostitutes in Kramat Tunggak. They, for example, have to be over 16 years old, and have been married.

In addition, they have to show their marriage or divorce papers before being permitted to work in the area. There's no way that children can work as prostitutes here, he said.

Sihombing says the number of child prostitutes in Jakarta is relatively small. For example, of 50 prostitutes who were nabbed walking the streets in a recent operation, only two were under 15 years of age.

He said his agency has no control over covert brothels operating as massage parlors and discotheques, because their operation permits are issued by the City Public Order Office, the city tourism agency and the city health agency.

Wulandari, of the Ananda Dian Nusantara Foundation, which helps streets kids, said her organization already considers child prostitution a major problem in Indonesia.

She said that of 60 children currently under the care of one of the foundation's homes in Kramat Jati, there are 20 girls under 15 who have made money as prostitutes.

"They were enticed by money or the offer of a new dress, which is something they've never had before," she said. (team)