Sodomized boys detained

JAKARTA (JP): The police have concluded that six of the 17 male street children they detained on Thursday night in Central Jakarta had been sodomized.

Central Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Abubakar Nataprawira said the boys were arrested in public places, including the Istiqlal mosque and the Senen and Sawah Besar railway stations.

"Our medical team found that six of the boys had been sodomized," Abubakar said yesterday.

He said the boys aged between nine and 15 years were street singers, three-in-one jockeys or shoeshine boys.

A detective said that one of the boys, identified as Siswanto, had said that he was picked up by two men on Jl. Salemba some months ago and taken to a house, which he could no longer recognize.

At the house, one of the men sodomized the 11-year-old boy and gave him Rp 150.000.

Abubakar said that Thursday night's operation was conducted to help solve the recent sadistic murder of eight boys.

Four of the boys' bodies were found at the defunct Kemayoran airport in Central Jakarta. The other four were found at Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

The bodies were found with their stomachs torn out and their necks wounded. They were either naked or semi-naked. In most cases, the police's only clues were razors and the victims' clothes found near the decomposed bodies.

East Jakarta Police have arrested three men accused of sexually assaulting underaged boys. The men have admitted sodomizing street children, but have denied killing them. (jun)