The police could track down the mafia organization that has been dealing in human organs if they unravel the loops involving various institutions, including immigration offices and pharmacists, a member of the National Police Commission said Thursday.
“It’s actually fairly easy to track down,” Adnan Pandu Praja told The Jakarta Post during a telephone interview.
Organ trafficking is among many crimes that are rarely solved by the police.
Adnan was speaking after a meeting with an alleged human organ transaction victim, who claimed that he had been tricked into selling his kidney at a low price.
The meeting, which also involved the former chairman of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Kartono Mohamad, was aired on national television TVRI with the victim’s face blurred.
Adnan said the story of B, the alleged victim, revealed the involvement of many institutions.
Hospitals, clinics, and immigration offices were among them.
According to the story, B saw a newspaper advertisement seeking “healthy candidates” for a job opportunity.
B’s mother was suffering from cancer at the time and he saw the job as a chance to earn money for her treatment.
Several weeks after applying for the job, a person who went by the name of Husein offered B a chance to earn money by selling his kidney.
“This Husein said that he needed his kidney for his relative, so he made it sound like a friendly, mutually beneficial deal. B was promised hundreds of millions of rupiah, enough for him to afford a house and a car,” Adnan said.
The operation to transplant the kidney took place in Singapore.
Prior to the operation, B had to undergo a test to determine the compatibility of the kidney, Kartono said.
“So medical speaking, the operation was professional because B had gone through the necessary tests,” he said.
But the Indonesian legal system prohibits the selling and buying of human organs. Organ transplants are only permitted with voluntary consent from the donor, who are usually relatives of those in need of the organs.
Thus, the process of transplanting B’s kidney involved many bogus documents, some stating that B was related to the donor receiver.
“B and the receiver shared a room in the hospital in Singapore. It was made to look as if the whole thing had been a family matter,” Adnan said.
After the operation, B went back to Indonesia and discovered that he was only paid Rp 28 million (around US$2,800) for his kidney. B’s disappointment prompted him to bare his case to the public.
Patra M. Zein from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) said the foundation had been interested in taking up B’s case.
However, Patra said that he had not been successful in discussing the matter with the victim. B was scheduled to meet the YLBHI on Wednesday but failed to show up.
“Maybe he is afraid of the legal consequences he might face,” he said.
B is also vulnerable to the law against human organ transaction because he sold his kidney willfully and was thus fully involved in the transaction.
“He objected only to the end result, which was an inadequate payment,” Adnan said.
He added, however, the court might consider being lenient to people such as B, who could help uncover the human organ trade mafia.
Adnan said the law against the trade of body parts in Indonesia was made to prevent people being pressed by poverty to sell their body parts.
But Kartono said the government should consider making the trade legal to prevent more illegal scams such as the one involving B in the future.
“Maybe the government should allow it under tight monitoring and rules,” he said.
Singapore and Indonesia are among the majority of countries in the world that do not allow human organ trade.
The Post was unable to contact B for his story.
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