Reported by Eko Rusdianto; Editors : Fahri Salam, Project Multatuli.
This article is first published on Project Multatuli and republished here under Creative Commons license.
PREAMBULE : On October 6th 2021 at 07:15 PM, Project Multatuli, a non-profit public journalism initiative, published an article detailing investigation cover-up of suspected child rape and abuse case in East Luwu, Southern Celebes, Indonesia. Within hours of publication, Project Multatuli’s website was DDoS attacked while East Luwu Police posted an instagram story claiming that the investigation was a hoax and simultaneously disclosed the name of the informant (later post retracted the name of the informant). Several anonymous instagram accounts also leaked parts of forensic and investigation reports, together with doxxing victims identities and dis-/misinformation efforts. As a solidarity, #PercumaLaporPolisi (it’s useless to report to the police) has been trending on Indonesian Twitter while many big news organization, republicized the articles. On my side, I also don’t want to let this injustice slide away from Police, journalist and both Indonesian and international netizens so I volunteered to republish the article and translate it to English. Let the victims get the justice they deserved. Support Project Multatuli in voicing the marginalized voice of the people here. Courtesy and credits belong to Eko Rusdianto and Project Multatuli. Find Tempo’s republished article here. Writer is no professional translator and neither an expert on criminology, law and journalism. Writer also declares no competing interests and no monetary support gained from this blog post.
DISCLAIMER : This article contains explicit contents that may trigger emotional and mental pressure for reader. We advice readers not to continue. We prefer this article read by Indonesian Police.
“IF YOU WRITE IT,” she said, “what will change?”
“We relied on the police. We reported it. What then? The culprit is still free.”
Lydia reported the incestuous rape experienced by her three daughters, all of them under 10 years old. Suspect culprit was her ex-husband, their blood father, a high ranking civil officer in regional government office.
Police took the case, but the investigating process was suspiciously full of manipulation and conflict of interest. Only 2 months after she reported it, the police ceased the investigation.
Not only getting justice for her case, Lydia was accused reporting her ex-husband for revenge. She was also defamed as a person with mental illness. This suspected defamation was used to de-legitimate her report and the evidence she collected alone in her effort to demand justice.
Lydia isn’t her real name. A single mother and divorcee, lived with her 3 daughters. They lived in East Luwu, a regency in Southern Celebes border, 12 hours by car from Makassar.
Even after divorce, her ex-husband still wanted to involve in joint custody. Her ex-husband was free to pick up the kids to come home from school and give them allowances or toys.
Everything was well until Lydia realized something amiss : when helping her kids take a shower, she found several bruises in her kids thighs.
The kids said, they fell when running and playing, causing the bruises. Lydia told them to be more careful. Nevertheless, not only bruises, her daughters’ attitudes drastically changed, they became quieter and liked to punch, didn’t have appetite, frequently felt dizzy and sick.
One night on early October 2019, when Lydia washed dishes, her youngest kid screamed that her sister complained pain on her vagina. Lydia instantly came to her, hugged and gently stroke her shoulder.
“Dear, what did your younger sis tell me about?” said Lydia.
“No ji, Mum”, said her eldest daughter.
She gently coaxed her, “I love you dear. Really care about you. If there is a problem, tell Mummy about it. I will help and protect you, ta. Are you afraid of Mummy?”
“Tell me, dear. Mummy don’t know if you’re sick. Are you in pain, my dear?”
Her eldest was quiet for a long time. Then, she sobbed. Lydia was surprised and panicked. Her eldest with choking voice, said “Mummy, Dad na anu pepe ‘ku”. Mother, my dad did something on my vagina, she said.
Lydia collapsed on the sofa, crying. “Don’t you joke around, dear. Don’t you ever joke like this.”
“Yes, Mother. Yes.”
She asked two other daughters. “Is it true?”
“Yes, Mum. I was also dianu in my butt,” her daughter replied.
“Me too, Mummy”, her youngest replied.
She hugged all three daughter, crying together. Her head felt like exploding, she wanted to scream. When trying to go to toilet to release her emotions, she fell, feeling her feet like a jelly.
Her daughters helped her settle down. She crawled to the soda and became disoriented. She started to come around when her daughters inquired, “What happened to you, ki, Mummy?”
She slowly regained her emotions, then examined her daughters. She found wound in vagina and anus. In that long night, she watched her daughters sleep. Confused and tired, she couldn’t sleep until morning.
IN THE SECOND WEEK of October 2019, Lydia, together with her daughters, went to Kantor Pusat Pelayanan Terpadu Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Anak/P2TP2A (Empowerment of Women and Children Integrated Care Centre), East Luwu Social Service. Ideally, someone can report sexual assault case to get protection in this unit.
Head of Care Centre, Firawati, took Lydia to a small room. While her daughters were playing in child facility in that unit, Lydia told Firawati chronology about her daughters were sexually assaulted by their own father. Firawati claimed to know the suspect perpetrator since they were “civil officers”.
Not prioritizing to give safety and comfort to Lydia and her daughters, Firawati instead called the suspect perpetrator, telling him there was a complaints of sexual abuse against him, so Lydia’s ex-husband went to Care Centre.
Firawati excused the reason to arrange a meeting Lydia’s daughters with suspect culprit was to prove whether they were traumatized when meeting their dad. Firawati also claimed Lydia consented the meeting. “It’s between civil officers. Need confirmation, “ she said.
“You know? All children went to their father. Their mother was left behind. even the children looked disappointed leaving their father when being called by their mother,” Firawati claimed.
Lydia, hearing when I repeated what Firawati claimed, was stunned.
“How could she said that? On the first day I went to report and asked for protection to the police, but Firawati instantly called the culprit that I came with the kids,” Lydia said.
“When he called, he accused me teaching the kids to lie about the culprit.”
“If I am confronted with Firawati again, I want to see how she lie.”
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Not only Lydia and her daughters were in vulnerable condition when the suspected culprit met them, her ex-husband immediately cursed Lydia, accused her teaching their daughters to snitch, jabbed that Lydia didn’t properly raise the kids.
That complaint didn’t bring Lydia protection she deserved, instead she was cornered, thrown out and waited for next steps.
The next day, Lydia and her daughters was asked to come to Firawati office again. From this, their daughters was psychologically assessed by an officer from Puspaga, an abbreviation of Pusat Pembelajaran Keluarga (Family Guidance Centre), a task unit under P2TP2A. Later it was found the examiner didn’t qualify as a child psychologist.
The examination produced claims that three Lydia’s daughters “did not show signs of trauma” and stated “caring and full of harmony relationship between daughters and parents” and in “healthy physical and mental well-being.”
Firawati’s act to confront three daughters with their father – assessing whether they were traumatized against their father or not – and strengthened with psychological assessment that Lydia’s children didn’t show signs of trauma, were enough to convince East Luwu Police to cease the investigation.
Continue reading “Project Multatuli : My Daughters Were Raped and The Police Ceased to Investigate the Case #PercumaLaporPolisi”
Journey of Lovianette Sherry 