Commission protests crack down on street kids

JAKARTA: The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) said the governments’s plan to clear the country’s urban streets of children was too ambitious and might lead to repression.

“The KPAI objects to the Social Services Ministry’s plan to ensure Indonesian cities are free of street kids by 2011,” KPAI chairman Hadi Supeno, told kompas.com on Monday.

He said the plan was repressive, as proven by the recent deaths of three street children in Jakarta. The children were chased by public order officials and during their attempt to avoid arrest, they died. One jumped into a river and drowned and another got hit by a car.

He said the report from Malang, East Java, also showed the police had cracked down on thousands of street children while offering them no better alternative. Depok and Bandung have organized similar crackdowns, he said.

“To deal with the problem, one should apply measures that are holistic, not repressive or partial,” he said.

Recently, street children drew public attention after Jakarta Police arrested a man who admitted to killing, mutilating and sexually harassing a number of street children. — JP