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legal aid institution advocating the protection of women and children called Thursday for public institutions to pay closer attention to domestic abuse violations being committed by their own staff.

The legal aid foundation for the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK) claims the armed forces, the civil service, the police and other governmental institutions may not be effective in combating domestic violence because some of their own staff members are involved in acts of abuse against their spouses and children.

LBH APIK director, Estu Rahmi Fanani, said Thursday that of the approximately 300 reports their organization had received by June, nearly 50 domestic abuse claims were from the wives and partners of police officers, soldiers, lawyers, judges and public servants. Last year, from nearly 330 reports, more than 50 alleged domestic violence incidences were perpetrated by public servants.

The course of action mainly taken by LBH APIK is to follow up the claims by reporting the incidences to the institutions where the abusers work.

"However, these institutions tend to blame the wives. On top of that, the processes are lengthy, the institutions tend to solve the problems in a familial way rather than through punishments and even if punishments are handed out, they tend to be light and do not fulfil a real sense of justice," said Eka Purnama Sari from LBH APIK legal division.

Estu said very few women report their husbands to the police using the 2004 law for the elimination of domestic violence. In 2008, a woman who filed a report against her husband, who was a police officer, found herself facing the same charges.

"When she was physically abused, she fought back by biting her husband. He reported her for that, and his report was processed faster than hers at the police station," she said.

In 2009, three women who reported their husbands for domestic abuse ended up facing a similar fate.

"They *the women* are still wary of filing a criminal report to the police, because when they make a statement to the station where their husbands work, they are not treated well or supported," Estu said.

Thirty-year-old Rosa (not her real name), who is going through a divorce with her husband, a police officer, said there was a code of silence within the corps to protect their own.

"They would rather keep it quiet than embarrass the corps," she said.

Estu said most domestic violence stems from infidelity. For example Lani (not her real name), said she suspected her husband was having an affair and upon reporting it to his superiors, found out he had two other wives. Her husband, she said, still works as an attorney with the civil service.