Keep Us Strong WikiLeaks logo

Currently released so far... 51122 / 251,287

Articles

Browse latest releases

Browse by creation date

Browse by origin

A B C D F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Browse by tag

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Browse by classification

Community resources

courage is contagious

Viewing cable 06JAKARTA3680, TIP UPDATE: POLICE RAIDS FREE CHILD PROSTITUTES

If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs

Understanding cables
Every cable message consists of three parts:
  • The top box shows each cables unique reference number, when and by whom it originally was sent, and what its initial classification was.
  • The middle box contains the header information that is associated with the cable. It includes information about the receiver(s) as well as a general subject.
  • The bottom box presents the body of the cable. The opening can contain a more specific subject, references to other cables (browse by origin to find them) or additional comment. This is followed by the main contents of the cable: a summary, a collection of specific topics and a comment section.
To understand the justification used for the classification of each cable, please use this WikiSource article as reference.

Discussing cables
If you find meaningful or important information in a cable, please link directly to its unique reference number. Linking to a specific paragraph in the body of a cable is also possible by copying the appropriate link (to be found at theparagraph symbol). Please mark messages for social networking services like Twitter with the hash tags #cablegate and a hash containing the reference ID e.g. #06JAKARTA3680.
Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06JAKARTA3680 2006-03-21 08:48 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Jakarta
VZCZCXRO6232
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #3680/01 0800848
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 210848Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1483
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0080
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 0021
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9248
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 0046
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DOD WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 003680 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/IET, EAP/RSP, G/TIP 
ALSO FOR USAID ANE/SPOTS, ANE/SEA, IGAT/WID, DCHA/DG 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR ICITAP AND OPDAT 
DEPT PASS TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL EAID KJUS KCRM ID
SUBJECT: TIP UPDATE: POLICE RAIDS FREE CHILD PROSTITUTES 
AND MIGRANT WORKERS; GOI STUDIES CHANGES IN MIGRANT LABOR 
SYSTEM 
 
REF: A. JAKARTA 2979 - 2006 TIP REPORT 
 
     B. JAKARTA 3490 - ANTI-CORRUPTION MOVES FORWARD 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
1.  (SBU) The new head of Indonesia's national police 
anti-trafficking unit (Unit III) has targeted removal of 
children from prostitution as his first operational priority. 
 Unit III's chief reports that police units in Surabaya, 
Batam and Jakarta have freed some 37 child victims in these 
locations and arrested 38 suspected traffickers in these 
operations over the past two months.  Anti-corruption efforts 
stopped dishonest officials from interfering in these law 
enforcement actions against child prostitution, according to 
Unit III's leader.  Separately, police and Manpower Ministry 
officials have raided five migrant worker holding centers 
since January, freeing 946 female migrant workers and making 
8 arrests, including one suspected trafficker from Lebanon 
and a notorious Indonesian recruiter.  A senior Manpower 
Ministry official described attempts to improve the migrant 
worker system to better protect workers and address debt 
bondage, including examination of private credit schemes and 
the proposal for an independent authority to oversee the 
migrant worker process.  While much hard work lies ahead, new 
police actions against child prostitution and continued 
official raids on migrant worker centers relate directly to 
priorities we have identified for Indonesia, namely combating 
internal child trafficking and stopping abuses in the migrant 
worker system.  End Summary. 
 
New Anti-Trafficking Chief in Police Force 
------------------------------------------ 
 
2.  (SBU) We met on March 17 with Anton Charliyan, the new 
head of the National Police Headquarters' anti-trafficking 
unit (Unit III) located in the Criminal Investigative 
Division (CID).  With a reputation as a tough investigator 
who rose to prominence in the ongoing murder case of human 
rights activist Munir, Anton explained that he had taken up 
his new role at the beginning of 2006.  Anton stated that he 
had increased Unit III's focus on actual investigations of 
traffickers, whether carried out by Unit III or, as is more 
common, by police officials at the local levels.  To this 
end, Anton had drafted and sent out a National Police 
Headquarters bulletin to all provincial police offices 
(POLDA), highlighting the need for more police action and 
instructing POLDAs to report on their anti-trafficking 
activities.  Unit III has called a coordination meeting of 
provincial police representatives for April to discuss 
anti-trafficking efforts, he explained.  Anton invited the 
Embassy to address this internal police meeting. 
 
Police Free 37 Children, Arrest 38 Suspects 
------------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Anton stated that the national police, with his 
advice, had chosen to prioritize the rescue of children from 
prostitution during an initial operational phase.  (Comment: 
The 2005 TIP report urges Indonesia to better address 
internal trafficking, and we have urged steps to combat child 
prostitution in major prostitution areas.  End Comment.)  In 
this context, since January police had carried out raids to 
identify, rescue and release children from brothels in four 
locales:  Jakarta, Surabaya's Dolly area, Batam and Tanjung 
Pinang.  As a deterrent measure, Anton advocated maximum 
sentencing of the suspects found guilty. 
 
4.  (SBU) Unit III and other sources provided data on the 
Jakarta and Surabaya operations, and additional Jakarta raids 
as follows.  We have not received data on the Batam and 
Tanjung Pinang police operations: 
 
--  Jakarta, January 24:  A January 24 raid by Unit III 
personnel on Jakarta's Sariayu brothel area uncovered and 
rescued 10 girls below the age of 18, resulting in 9 arrests 
 
JAKARTA 00003680  002 OF 003 
 
 
of pimps and business front owners.  Police charged suspects 
under the 2002 Child Protection Act and the criminal code, 
and delivered their reports to the prosecutors on March 1. 
Police took an additional 140 women and male prostitutes to 
the Social Affairs Ministry's social rehabilitation center. 
 
-- Surabaya, March 1:  According to Anton, AmCon Surabaya 
police contacts and press sources, a March 1 raid by Surabaya 
police in the Dolly brothel area resulted in police 
identifying and rescuing 19 or 20 child prostitutes.  Police 
quickly handed the children into the care of local NGO and 
IOM shelters.  The raid followed a day-long ILO training 
seminar on combating child prostitution.  Police had 
difficulties in determining the ages of prostitutes due to 
the prevalence of false identity cards.  Police arrested 5 
persons for violating the Child Protection Act and the 
criminal code, and have sent their reports to prosecutors. 
 
-- Jakarta, March 11, 13 and 14:  West Jakarta police raided 
three brothels on these dates, releasing over 180 adult 
prostitutes and 2 children, according to Unit III summary 
data.  The police arrested 24 persons for pimping, chargeable 
under the criminal code. 
 
Corrupt Officials Could Not Stop Raids 
-------------------------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) We asked Anton about police actions against 
individual police force members who involved themselves in 
prostitution or trafficking, noting the frequent reports of 
individual police officers who provide protection to brothels 
or take protection payments.  (Note:  We do not have specific 
reports of security force members, police or military, acting 
as traffickers.  The reports and observations available 
normally highlight payoffs to corrupt individual police 
officers or their employment as security personnel.  End 
Note.)  Anton said that the current unprecedented national 
anti-corruption drive (ref B) and anti-trafficking directives 
from the national police leadership have resulted in a 
changed operating environment for police actions.  In police 
operations this year targeted at freeing child prostitutes, 
corrupt officials were not willing or able to turn off police 
raids and protect brothel owners from arrest.  Individual 
police officers have grown more aware that child prostitution 
is a serious crime that cannot be tolerated.  While falling 
short of criminal prosecution of corrupt officials, Anton 
viewed this as a sign of an important shift. 
 
6.  (SBU) Anton noted that while initial actions this year 
have focused on internal child trafficking for prostitution 
(a step the Jakarta Mission has advocated and welcomed), Unit 
III would not neglect international trafficking.  He 
explained that he would depart Jakarta March 18 on a mission 
to Malaysia to help establish better law enforcement 
cooperation there, and then to the Middle East, a major 
trafficking destination for Indonesian victims. 
 
Manpower Ministry on Migrant Worker Protection 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
7.  (SBU) On March 20 we called on the Manpower Ministry's 
Director General for Overseas Manpower Placement and 
Development, I Gede Arka, and noted continued concerns over 
the practice of debt bondage in Indonesia's migrant worker 
system.  While the vast majority of Indonesian migrant 
workers are not trafficked, debt bondage increased the 
vulnerability of migrant workers to trafficking and other 
abuse.  We also raised the conditions in migrant worker 
holding centers, operated by licensed and unlicensed migrant 
worker recruiting agencies (PJTKI). 
 
8.  (SBU) Arka responded that the holding centers, when 
operated according to GOI standards, serve a legitimate 
purpose, namely to provide basic training and orientation to 
unskilled and poorly educated workers before they are sent 
overseas, and to conduct visa and document processing for the 
 
JAKARTA 00003680  003 OF 003 
 
 
migrant workers.  Arka admitted that there are abuses in some 
centers, particularly in unlicensed locations.  Following 
passage of the 2004 Migrant Worker Protection Act, the 
Manpower Ministry and police had conducted raids against 
abusive migrant worker holding centers in the greater Jakarta 
area, Surabaya, Batam and Tanjung Pinang.  Allowing us to 
examine his computer records, Arka demonstrated that since 
late 2004 these actions had resulted in raids on 34 centers 
(7 unlicensed), the arrest of 36 PJTKI managers, the 
conviction of 4 suspects, and the release of 3,443 female 
migrant workers.  The data revealed the following annual 
breakdown: 
 
                                   2006 
                   2004    2005    to date  Total 
                   ----    ----    ----     ---- 
PJTKI raided         10      19       5       34 
  licensed            8      15       4       27 
  unlicensed          2       4       1        7 
 
Arrests              12      16       8       36 
 
Victims Rescued    1093    1404     946     3443 
 
 
9.  (SBU) According to Arka, recent arrests included a 
Lebanese national who reportedly sold women to Syria, Egypt 
and Turkey.  Another recent arrestee was Jimmy Chandra, an 
abusive migrant worker recruiter originally arrested in 
December 2002, but not successfully prosecuted.  Arka said 
the Ministry was pressing prosecutors to demand a ten-year 
jail sentence for Chandra. 
 
Exploring Alternatives to PJTKI Debts, Other Reforms 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
10.  (SBU) Arka explained that the Ministry was exploring 
alternatives to the current practice in which most migrant 
workers are indebted to the PJTKI.  The Ministry had worked 
with three Indonesian banks and one Taiwanese bank to find 
private credit schemes for poor migrant workers.  In general, 
the banks had balked at taking risks associated with lending 
to impoverished individuals without repayment guarantees and 
lacking a clear system for periodic repayments from workers 
abroad. 
 
11.  (SBU) The Ministry also has proposed the establishment 
of an independent body to better administer and monitor the 
migrant worker recruiting system, tentatively called the 
Indonesian Migrant Worker Placement and Protection Agency. 
The proposal is under consideration by the President's office 
and would need funding by the legislature.  Arka compared 
this proposed body to the independent authority functioning 
in the Philippines. 
 
12.  (SBU) Arka's staff noted the recent creation of migrant 
worker service centers in 12 districts located in Java, West 
Kalimantan and eastern Indonesia.  The Ministry has tasked 
the centers with public dissemination of information on the 
migrant worker system, ways to identify and avoid illegal 
recruiters, and raising awareness of trafficking related to 
migrant labor. 
PASCOE