The under-cover police agents pretending to be
customers ordered six boys from the suspect, initialed AR, 41, who then asked
for half the prize as down payment, IDR 1.2 million for each boy. The money was
transferred to AR’s bank account, and it was followed up with face-to-face
encounter in a hotel, considered safe enough for such encounters, around 2 p.m.
And that’s it for AR’s career. He was arrested on
the spot, and along with the suspect, the police secured seven victims, namely
six underage boys, 13-15 in average, and an 18-year old juvenile male. AR is
charged with multiple clauses, with maximum penalty of 12 years in prison.
Most of the victims are from poor families, and
still going to school – supported by a finding of school uniform in a victim’s
bag. Some of the victims, when interviewed, said they already “enjoyed” the deviant
activity, while others are still shy or in doubt, according to the police. The
victims also underwent health checkup, screened for any sexual-related disease.
They will also go through mental and psychological rehabilitation.
Beside those seven victims, apparently much more
children are being offered through AR’s Facebook account, in total about 99
were discovered at the first investigation. These children are still living
with their families, and would be contacted and summoned by AR when needed. Out
of the IDR 1.2 million for each, a victim only receives about IDR 100,000 – IDR
200,000 for every short-time service.
Investigators were sure there was more than one
suspect acting as pimps. After further investigations, other suspects were
found, initialed U and E; the previous also a pimp, while the latter a user of
child prostitution service, recruiter, and provider of bank account to collect
all the crimes’ money. Number of victims are also added up to 148. Users of the
children’s “service” are also likely to be charged with Children Protection
Law. Whether these users are foreigners or domestic tourists is still under
investigation.
This is not the first time for AR to be charged on
human trafficking crimes. Previously, he traded females, and sentenced to 2.5
years in prison for it. The fact that now he was trading boys after released
five months earlier, the police says, is “an extraordinary aberration”. He has
been running his last illegal business for about a year, usually offering the
boys to foreigners through Facebook and other social sites.
AR was known to be an introvert person, rarely
socializing with the neighbors, said the owner the boarding house where AR was
living for the last three months. Yet, he managed to easily invite school boys
in his neighborhood into his illegal business, enticing them with huge amount
of money and giving them cellphones as communication devices, in exchange of
joining his “business”, namely giving sexual services to male adults. He used
to bring in boys to his room around noon, the boarding house owner added. He
did gather boys in there every two days, probably in preparation before
transactions, said the local village chief. A box full of condoms and a schoolboy were found when police
searched his room after the arrest.
Indonesia’s Minister of Social Affairs said, this is
the first case of gay sexual exploitation ever in Indonesia. She calls for
parents to look after their children more carefully, especially from hedonistic
and consumptive lifestyle which can easily entrap them into such practice.
Precautions include the parents themselves accustoming to latest technology,
since the practice of “recruiting” the children is mostly through their own
gadgets.
Child Protection Commission chairman, Asrorun, also
said that close attention should be paid to prevailing gay communities including
those specially intended for the underage. “These (gay communities) are
well-organized,” he said, “And must be uncovered.” Revealing of this case, he
added, should be made a momentum and broadened to dealing with other kinds of
sexual crimes toward children.
This case clearly indicates that child prostitutions
today is not limited to girls only, but expanded already to boys as well. In
fact, according to a survey by the Ministry of Women Empowering and Children
Protection in 2014, boys are twice as likely to get sexual and physical abuse
as girls. The dominant culture which demands males to be strong and tough, is
proven harmful, because sexually abused boys rarely report to the authority. As
for victimized boys in Indonesia, the minister mentioned 3,000 as the reported
number. It was a small number, she added, due to most victims being reluctant
to make reports.
This makes strong demand for immediate legalization
of the new sexual abuse law even more intense. The new law authorizes castration as an alternative way to
prevent sexual abuse to children. Unfortunately, one fraction in the parliament
rejected this legislation, reasoning that it lacks technical details on how to
implement the castration. Other fractions supporting the legislation, however, argued
that the following implementing regulation of the new law will deal with the
technical details, not the law itself. Another argument says that not all
sexual child abusers will be castrated. Only those with the testosterone level
between 600-1,000 nanograms are subjected to castrations. Hopefully, this
measure will significantly reduce the rate of sexual abuse to children.
According to the police, sexual crimes against
children nowadays tend to decrease quantitatively, but increase qualitatively. This should be another
alarm to all of us.
Meanwhile, the gay behavior itself seems to have expanded
beyond the boundaries of age. It was
reported that an 8-year old girl was arrested in Uganda, allegedly for being a
“lesbian”. She was caught necking with
her girlfriend, only days after a “gay pride” parade was halted by police. Gay
behavior has been deemed a criminal act by Uganda government since then.
The arrest followed an eyewitness report accusing
the girl of “having romantic relationship” with her peer, often taking her to a
nearby ranch to commit such act. Investigations are now extended to adults
surrounding her life to find out whether any of them has had bad influence on
her. There was no explanation of why only that one girl was arrested, while her
girlfriend was not.
Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity emphasized
his government’s stance on homosexuality, that it is committed to fight the
illegal practice. This was met with angry reaction by LGBT activists in that
country.
This one single case could have been just the tip of
an iceberg. Wondering where in the world this could lead us further to?
