PRESIDENT VISITS JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER IN TANGERANG

Jakarta, Feb. 16 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited a juvenile detention center in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Tuesday morning.

The head of state and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono were during the visit accompanied by among others Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufrie, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, and Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam.

Minister Patrialis Akbar had found four children aged under 12 years old at the Tangerang juvenile detention center when he and National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh as well as State Minister for Women's Empowerment Minister Linda Gumelar visited the prison last December 2009.

"We will follow it up because we have found children below 12 years old being held at the detention center," Akbar said last December.

Detaining children below 12 years old was against the law, he said.

The minister planned to release the children and return them to their parents, or send them to a state home for poor children.

"We will make an evaluation of how justly the laws are enforced," he said.