JAKARTA (AFP) - An Indonesian city is offering more than 1,000 boys a free circumcision as part of celebrations for the 58th anniversary of its foundation, a report said Tuesday.

Health officials in Kotabaru, South Kalimantan province, said the circumcisions were a gift of better health to hundreds of boys whose families may not be able to afford the procedure, Antara news agency reported.

“We hope the mass circumcision… can help the people in maintaining their health because free medical services do not include small operations,” local health department chief Cipta Waspada said.

Free cataract and harelip operations are also being offered to more than 100 people as part of next week’s festivities.

OSLO (AFP) - Norwegian police accused a Gambian couple on Friday of subjecting five daughters to genital mutilation in the country’s first-ever case against the illegal act of female circumcision.

“The father and mother are accused under laws against genital mutilation because they are suspected of contributing to the circumcision of five of their six daughters,” Hanne Kristin Rohde, a police official told NRK radio.

Only two of the six children who are aged between three and 14 live in Norway, although the others — who live in West Africa’s Gambia, with the man’s two other wives — have Norwegian passports. These include a three-year old who has not yet been circumcised.

Rohde made it clear that Norway’s public child protection agency would be entrusted with caring for all the children.

Their father, a 41 year-old whose identity has not been disclosed, is expected to appear before a judge with authorities seeking his detention. Their mother, due to give birth to a seventh child, is said to be too weak to spend time behind bars.

Rohde said Norwegian laws against female genital mutilation carry a prison term of several years depending on the severity of the case.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Ten U.N. agencies launched a new campaign on Wednesday to end female genital mutilation, urging governments to help abolish a practice they said remained widespread in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

“If we can come together for a sustained push, female genital mutilation can vanish within a generation,” U.N. Deputy Secretary General told an annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

“We call on (U.N.) member states to join us as full partners in this fight, to promote the end of this terrible practice, to respond to its consequences, and to hold those who perpetrate it criminally responsible for inflicting harm.”

An estimated 100 million to 140 million women and girls worldwide are estimated to have undergone genital mutilation, also called female circumcision, with U.N. agencies estimating that another 3 million a year are subjected to it.

The practice usually involves cutting off the clitoris and other parts of the female genitalia. Many of the practitioners are untrained and use crude instruments.

Proponents of the ancient custom say it reduces female sexual desire, maintaining chastity before marriage and fidelity afterward. It can cause health complications and psychological damage and is sometimes fatal.

In a statement condemning the procedure, the U.N. agencies expressed concern that it has been in effect legitimized in some countries where is often done by medical professionals.

“The rate of decline in this practice leaves much to be desired,” the statement said. “If we are to eliminate it, we must redouble our efforts.” The campaign aims to eradicate the practice by 2015.

Last year the United Nations called for a worldwide ban on genital mutilation. The east African country of Eritrea, where the practice has been widespread, banned it in April 2007.

Egypt, where UNICEF estimates that some 97 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have suffered the procedure, strengthened its ban last year by eliminating a legal loophole allowing girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons.

Genital mutilation predominantly occurs in 28 African countries, including Sudan, Chad, Sierra Leone and Djibouti, as well as in some Middle Eastern nations, parts of Asia, including Indonesia, and among immigrant communities in Europe and North America.