Sexual abuse victims to report to police

JAKARTA (JP): The police cannot fully guarantee solving all sexual abuse cases from last month's riots due to several basic investigation obstacles, an officer said yesterday.

One of the critical problems always facing police in such cases is the reluctance of many victims to report incidents to the police, City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said.

"The victims usually feel embarrassed.

"The police have yet to receive any accusations or reports of sexual abuse during the recent riots," he said.

He said he hoped victims would report any cases personally or through other parties, including non-government organizations, so police could immediately start an investigation.

The amount of time passed between the incident and the time the crime is reported is a major factor affecting the chance that a case can be successfully completed.

"For instance, if a sex crime occurs and the victim reports it weeks later, the physical evidence is already gone and the victim's memory about the incident probably becomes blurred," Aritonang said.

The more details the victim can provide, the greater chance the police have in apprehending the perpetrator, he added.

The women's rights group Mitra Perempuan yesterday claimed to have been informed of more than 20 sexual abuse cases from May 13 to May 15, when looting and burning rocked the city.

Although the group did not identify the victims, it said many of them were of Chinese descent.

In a statement, Mitra Perempuan said angry mobs stripped and molested a number of Chinese-Indonesian women before forcing them to swim in a pond somewhere in the Daan Mogot area.

The group also received reports that a number of women were raped in front of an onlooking crowd in Glodok, while dozens of other women were sexually harassed in their homes. (edt)