Safari park denies employing children

JAKARTA (JP): The management of the famous safari park near the West Java town of Bogor denied yesterday allegations of child abuse hurled at them by two escaped employees.

Asep Firmansyah, the assistant manager of Taman Safari, said the allegations by Vivi, who he said was 22 years of age, and Robby Tjahjadi were groundless. In an interview with The Jakarta Post yesterday, he retracted an earlier claim that the park did not employ children.

He also denied chaining child workers in solitary confinement for attempting to leave the park. He said employees could come and go, to the movies or other places, as long as they did not neglect their duties at the park.

Although they did not pursue formal education like many other children a qualified teacher came to teach the English, Mandarin, reading, writing and math, he said.

A park employee, who requested anonymity, said 100 of the 600 employees at the privately-owned park were children. He said some worked as gardeners and animal keepers.

Vivi and her co-worker fled to Semarang, Central Java, and told National Commission on Human Rights member Muladi of their plight at the park. Muladi had said both were underaged and could no longer withstand the harsh treatment meted out by unnamed supervisors.

The children, who worked with animals in acrobatic performances, were not allowed to go to school or contact their parents while at the park, Muladi said.

"Many of them experienced forced labor under extreme conditions while their employer disregarded their condition and their futures," he said, adding they were locked up and chained for a week if they were caught trying to escape the park.

Muladi, also rector of Diponegoro University in Semarang, told reporters that if Vivi's claim was true, the park's managers had violated the children's right to development.

The commission promised to issue a statement on the matter on Monday.

Asep said he was surprised by Vivi's allegations.

The girl has worked at the park since she was 11 and often performed dances with her co-workers and acrobatics with animals. Robby began work tending reptiles and became a trainer in a martial arts team, Merpati Putih, Asep said. (01)