Jakarta Globe

Former street children reading at a Ministry of Social Affairs child safe house in Cipayung, Jakarta. The house shelters 29 children who have been on the street or suffered abuse. More than 4,000 children live or work on Jakarta’s streets. They are easy prey for sexual predators like Bayquni, who has admitted to molesting and killing at least 10. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

Children Who Lived With Alleged Killer Saw Him as Their ‘Father’

The discovery of the mutilated and sexually abused body of a 9-year-old boy early this month and the subsequent confessions of his alleged killer have put the spotlight on the dangers faced daily by more than 4,000 children who live or work on Jakarta’s streets.

To many of these children, people like 49-year-old Bayquni, also known as Babe, who provide them with a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat each day, are saviors.

Two of the children Bayquni took care of attest to this. In an exclusive interview with the Jakarta Globe, two boys talked of how they felt protected in his care, and how he was a “good man” who helped them quit substance abuse.

They had no idea that he was the same man who, over the past three weeks, has confessed to sexually molesting and murdering at least 10 children, the boys said. To them he was a “father” — Babe means father in Betawi.

“The first time we found out that [he] was molesting and killing the kids we could not believe it,” said Iwan, one of the two boys.

“But it is a relief for me that he has been arrested,” he added.

The boys, both 14, are now under the care of the Children’s Social Protection Home until they are fully ready to go back to their parents.

Since the case was made public, various government officials have pledged to address the problems of Jakarta’s street kids. The Jakarta city administration, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection say they are now working to clear the capital of street children by 2011.

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