Two newborns abandoned on the capital's streets
JAKARTA (JP): Two newborns, believed to be one day old, were found dead in separate places in the capital yesterday morning.
A baby boy was found in a plastic bag -- which was being dragged around by a dog -- in front of a Chinese prayer house in Gang Mawar in Kapuk, West Jakarta.
A baby girl wrapped in an old blanket was found by traders of Karang Anyar traditional market in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta.
Ading, a senior morgue staffer of Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, quoted police officers as saying that the boy was found by a local resident, who grabbed the bag from the dog after noticing a tiny leg hanging out.
"The man said that he decided to chase after the dog and snatch the white plastic bag from its jaws after he smelled a putrid odor coming from the bag and later saw a little leg."
Ading said the unidentified man believed that the dog found the bag at a nearby garbage dump.
The dead baby was taken to Cengkareng Police subprecinct office before being rushed to Cipto at 11.30 a.m., for a postmortem examination.
Earlier in the day, the finding of the baby girl caused a stir among traders at Karang Anyar market, officer First Sgt. S. Simanjuntak of the Sawah Besar Police subprecinct said.
"The baby was put near an empty wooden box near the parking lot outside the market," he said.
The traders and shoppers, mostly women, flocked to the scene to look at the baby.
"They left their kiosks and spontaneously screamed as they saw the dead baby," Simanjuntak said.
According to preliminary data, the newborns dumped yesterday have increased the death toll for abandoned babies in the city to five this year.
Last month, a baby boy -- who still had an intact umbilical cord -- was found by a street sweeper in front of a residential gate in the luxury Cipinang Indah housing complex in East Jakarta.
On Sunday evening, a floodgate operator on Malang River in East Jakarta located the body of a 10-year-old boy drifting down the river.
The boy was later identified as Agus Priyatna, a third year student of the state-run SDN 11 elementary school in Cipinang Besar, East Jakarta.
According to one of his neighbors, Alex, 33, the boy was seen playing along the river bank with his friends in the afternoon.
"Agus, who was unable to swim, only watched his friend swimming and looked after their clothes."
After swimming, all the children went home without Agus, he said.
"Some of the children said Agus had also said goodbye to them as if he was heading home. None of his friends knew that it was his last farewell." (emf/09)