Jakarta Globe, July 23, 2010
National Commission for Children’s Protection chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait is warning of a "social crisis" in Indonesia after shocking new child abuse statistics were released. (Antara Photo)
Jakarta. The National Commission for Children’s Protection says it had recorded 1,826 cases of violence, sexual assault and incest against children across Indonesia in the first five months of 2010 alone.
“The number of cases of violence against children, especially physical and sexual violence, has increased. In the first five months of 2010 alone, there were 1,826 cases,” Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the commission, Komnas Anak, said in Jakarta on Thursday.
Some 68 percent of the sexual abuse cases involved close relatives, he said.
For all of 2009, there were a total of 1,891 cases of violence against children, up from 1,626 cases in 2008, according to the commission’s data.
Sirait said the cases reflected the failure of families to protect their children, citing examples of where a parent had burned their own baby and a mother broke her five-month-old baby’s hand and leg.
“It’s a social crisis and the violence does not make sense. Those who committed the violence were the ones who are supposed to be protecting the children,” he said.
Children who are particularly prone to violence are street children and children from middle- and low-income families, Sirait said.
Antara
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