4,600 human remains to be moved

JAKARTA (JP): The city funeral agency is to begin removing the 4,626 bodies buried in the Blok P cemetery Tuesday as part of a plan to build the South Jakarta mayoralty office on the site.

City spokesman Kamaludin Santos said yesterday the removal of the graves from the cemetery on Jl. Prapanca Raya would take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on unspecified days until Sept. 21.

"A day before the operation, the funeral agency will hold a meeting with relatives of the people buried there and a few minutes before starting the work it will organize a religious ceremony to pay tribute to the dead," said Kamaludin.

The cemetery contains the remains of 3,724 Moslems and 902 Christians. The Moslems will be taken to Srengseng Sawah public cemetery and the Christians to Kampung Kandang public cemetery. Both are in South Jakarta.

"In the first stage, 2,674 bodies will be removed, 1,772 Moslems and all of the Christians'," Kamaludin said.

Relatives of the dead people will not be charged anything unless they want to remove the bodies to a cemetery other than the one specified.

Since the city closed the cemetery in 1975, 1,580 bodies have been removed by relatives under their own initiative.

One of the problems for the funeral agency is that some of the graves at the cemetery contain the remains of relatives of high- ranking officers. One is Ade Irma Nasution, the youngest daughter of Gen. (ret) Abdul Haris Nasution.

After the removal operation is completed, the city will start construction of the Rp 54.8 billion ($20.70 million) South Jakarta Mayoralty office on 25,370 square meters of the 4.7- hectare plot.

According to the plans, the office is to be a three-building complex. The mayoralty office will be 16 stories and two other, four-story, buildings will be used for public service offices. Construction is expected to be completed by 2001.

Officials are refusing to disclose the city's plan for the site of the current South Jakarta mayoralty office on Jl. Trunojoyo, which is adjacent to the ASEAN Secretariat and the recently gutted National Police headquarters. (bsr)