D

epression due to economic hardship was blamed on Friday as having caused a mother, Dina Yanuarti, 36, of Jl. Pesantren in Cimahi, West Java, to kill her two children Muhammad Alif, 4, and Muhammad Salim Abdurahman, 1, before taking her own life.

Head of the Cimahi Police detectives and crime unit, Adj. Comr. Sujana, said the bodies of the three were found in their house by Dina’s brother, Kustiono.

“When he awoke at 4:30 a.m., he found Salim’s body in the front room while Alif’s and Dina’s were in the back room. They were all found hanged with scarfs,” Sujana said.

One day before the grim discovery, the whole family, including Dina’s husband, Untung, went to a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Tasikmalaya seeking medical treatment for Dina’s depression. Unfortunately, the pesantren only accepted male patients, forcing the family to return to Cimahi.

They dropped off Untung at his rented room in the provincial capital Bandung, where he worked as an attendant at a photocopy store, and Dina and her kids carried on to Kustiono’s house, where they lived.

Based on information from witnesses, the police learned that Dina had been suffering from depression for several months, since giving birth to her second son.

Dina had reportedly received medication from a number of mental hospitals including the Cisarua Mental Hospital in West Bandung regency. “She underwent treatment at the hospital every two weeks,” Cimahi Police chief Comr. Ending Rohaedi said.

Asked for his response by reporters, Untung only said, “This is enough. They have been taken back by Allah. That’s it,” he said at the Cimahi police precinct.

To prove the family’s claim that Dina indeed suffered from depression, the police took Untung to the Cisarua Mental Hospital.

The police also seized items as evidence from Kustiono’s house, including a bolster, mineral water, tissues, a veil and scarfs. “We have not yet determined the motive. We are still investigating,” said Sujana.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in September 2012 that around 1 million people killed themselves every year worldwide, a figure greater than the number of annual deaths caused by wars and murders combined.

The data, released prior to the commemoration of World Suicide Prevention Day, stated that someone committed suicide every 40 seconds. It also revealed that 5 percent of the world’s population had attempted to kill themselves at sometime in their lives, while the number of suicide attempts increased at an average of 20 percent each year.

To help prevent people from committing suicide, the WHO called on all governments to invest in human resources and finance their respective health and social sectors.