|
By Wahyudi Soeriaamatdja
SEVEN-year-old Arief had been busking on the streets for three months when his body was found chopped into pieces at a bus terminal in May 2008.
The boy was a victim of cigarette vendor Baekuni, 49, who recently confessed to killing at least 13 street boys after sodomising them.
Arief's aunt Aulia cared for him after his parents split up, and said he busked on the streets to earn pocket money to pay for his bus to school.
'He could make 5,000 rupiah (80 Singapore cents) a day. That is good for someone his age,' said Ms Aulia, who is in her 20s and sells snacks and soft drinks at the intersection where Arief used to roam.
With scant parental attention, Arief preferred to roam the streets, and sleep at halfway homes, she said.
There are a number of such halfway homes funded by the government and civil society groups, where children can read books and have meals. In other cases, they are just the homes of people like Baekuni, who prey on the children instead of helping them.
Street children usually prefer to spend a night in a home rather than on the street, where they risk being picked up by police and put in state-run rehabilitation centres. Unfortunately, Arief picked the wrong home.
Heartbroken and miserable, his mother sent her other three children to live with relatives after hearing of her son's murder. She now sings on the street for money and cares only for her youngest son, who is two.
'It is sad,' said Ms Aulia. 'Arief only wanted to be able to go to school, but he ended up losing his life.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
| 
