T

he National Commission on Child Protection has urged the Medan Police in North Sumatra to press charges against a man believed to be responsible for the deaths of two children from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) who were victims of human trafficking.

Commission chairman, Arist Merdeka Sirait, arrived Friday at Medan Police headquarters to issue the demand in person.

Arist said the case had been investigated for over a year, with no indication that police were ready to hand the case off to the Medan Prosecutor'€™s Office, despite the naming of two suspects; one who was the children'€™s employer and the other the person who sent them to Medan from NTT.

The latter has been convicted for her crime in Kupang, NTT.

'€œWe want the [other] suspect to be sent to court and punished according to prevailing laws,'€ Arist told reporters after meeting with Medan Police executives.

He said his visit to city police was urged by a number of administration officials and pastors in NTT. People in NTT, he said, were shocked by the deaths of the trafficked children and wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice.

'€œThey want to see justice served in the deaths of the children,'€ Arist said.

The two children, identified as Marni Baun and Riska Bota, died after being forced to work without food or pay.

The case was revealed when police raided a swallow-breeding farm belonging to Mohar on Jl. Brigjen Katamso, Medan, in March 2014, where they found 18 workers from NTT locked up.

The police then named Mohar as a suspect. Another perpetrator, Rebeca Ledoh, who since 2011 had sent workers to Mohar from Kupang was sentenced to seven years in prison at the Kupang District Court in November 2014.

Arist expressed his disappointment in the police'€™s reluctance to move the Mohar case to trial and for the decision to grant Mohar city-arrest status.

'€œThis is a backwards move. The suspect should have been tried but was instead named a city detainee,'€ Arist said.

Medan City Police vice control unit chief Adj. Comr. Martuasa Tobing confirmed that Mohar had been named a city detainee and was obliged to report to police every Tuesday and Thursday.

Martuasa, however, promised that police would not stop investigating the case.

'€œThe police are still committed to finishing the case thoroughly. The problem is, we have found it difficult to examine all the witnesses as they are in NTT,'€ Martuasa told The Jakarta Post after meeting with the commission chairman.

Martuasa added that the commission had expressed a willingness to help police facilitate witness examinations in NTT to accelerate the handling of the case.

'€œIn the near future, together with the commission, we will depart for NTT to examine the witnesses,'€ Martuasa said, expressing optimism that the case would be handed over to the prosecutor'€™s office soon.