M

ore than 16,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Law and Human Rights Ministry to create a database of child predators and make the list available to the public.

The online petition, posted on the website change.org, said that the list would prevent the Education and Culture Ministry from allowing sex offenders to work as teachers.

The online petition also demands the registry be made available for companies hiring outsourced
workers.

The petition was started by the organization Ibu Bergerak founded by Precilia Siahaan, Julienne Sunarjo, Mira Sirait, Juliana Soedomo and Chico Hakim.

Precilia said that to avoid the list from becoming defamatory, only people who had been proven guilty by a court would appear on it. She added that similar registries existed in other countries such as the United States and Japan.

The goal, she emphasized, was child safety.

'We hope our children are safe because most sexual assaults have taken place at schools,' Precilia said.

Data released by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) shows that there have been more than 21.6 million cases of violations of children's rights with 42-58 percent of those being sexual assaults. The data also shows that school is the second-most common place for a sexual assault against a child to occur.

Komnas PA chief Arist Merdeka Sirait said schools and boarding schools had became hiding places for sexual predators targeting children.

He said sex offenders were often regular teachers, spiritual teachers, security guards, gardeners and clerical workers.

'Schools and boarding schools have been a safe haven for sex offenders to wait for victims,' he said.

He said that highly publicized cases such as the Robot Gedeg case in 1992, the recent Jakarta International School (JIS) case and the Emon case were just the tip of the iceberg.

In 1997, a Jakarta resident named Robot Gedek sodomized and murdered a number of street children with a brutality that shocked the city.

Earlier this year, JIS made headlines after an alleged sexual abuse happened within its supposedly secure walls. Also this year, Emon, or Andri Sobari, was apprehended for allegedly raping 114 children in Sukabumi, West Java.

Wahid Institute director, Zannuba 'Yenny' Ariffah Chafsoh Rahman Wahid, called on the National Police to improve its forensics crime capabilities so that investigators would not rely only on witness and victim testimony.

'Relying on witness and victim testimonies only brings back traumatic experiences for the victims and families,' she said.

She added that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government could establish the sex offender database and leave it behind as a legacy.

'This current government will leave us soon, and we hope whoever the next president is will have concern for sexual assault cases against children,' she said. (put)