Caught in the cross fire -- people reflect on the riots

JAKARTA (JP): To Indonesians nationwide, the May 14 incident will be remembered as a day of burning, rampant looting and the unnecessary loss of hundreds of lives.

The day Jakarta was burned to the ground.

Some suffered tragic losses while others gained from them. The following are some telling examples.

Piping Mulyadi, 28, owned a paint store on Jl. Palmerah Barat, West Jakarta, which was burned along with more than 15 other houses in the same street.

It happened at around 12:30 p.m. Masses of people had started throwing stones some time before that at nearby shopping center where Ramayana Department Store had been situated. I peeked from my window and saw that they were looting and burning the gold shops in there.

My parents and two sisters were with me. People were going to break into our house and I tried to prevent it. I pressed my body against the door so that they wouldn't break it down. This bruised my left cheek badly.

They were trying so hard. The doorknob broke but for some reason, and to this day I don't understand why, they left.

Then two men came. They offered to help us and we thanked them.

I went out for a while... people saw me standing in front of my house and they threatened to burn the store down, thinking that it was a store alone. I screamed, telling them that this was a residential house owned by pribumi (indigenous Indonesians) contracted to us.

My family and I were sitting in the guest room for more than one hour when some guys politely told us to gather our valuables and jewelry and try to stay calm because 15 houses on our left side were burned.

I went out into the crowd. Luckily, I caught sight of my sister's friend's father. He offered to help us and we went to his place.

Later we found out that our home and shop were burned down.

For the first day, we stayed at his place. I am a Buddhist and a member of the Indonesian Buddha Dharma Foundation. The foundation is offering to shelter riots victims so we moved there, to the foundation's office, Jl. Padang, Manggarai, South Jakarta.

Mariani, 45, a seamstress living in Cipinang, East Jakarta, lost her son in the May 14 incident.

On the Thursday afternoon, my son Budi Harsono, 19, informed me that he was going shopping at the Yogya supermarket in Plaza Klender, East Jakarta. Due to the rioting that followed, he said he could not leave the building.

He did not contact me after that.

I and my other son, Andrianto, 25, later got the news that Plaza Klender was burned to the ground. We tried to find out about him and went to the Cipinang police station, the Klender police station, and then to Jakarta Police Headquarters.

We were later told that we should go to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Central Jakarta. There were hundreds of body bags ... and we were told that he was in one of them.

We gave a description of him. The clothes that he was wearing that day... blue pants. That too... it was torn... his face, body was fully burned and it had become so small. But we knew it was him.

Forensics were not willing to release the body to us because of lack of evidence proving that he was Budi Harsono.

He was buried in Monday's mass burial for 113 victims of Thursday's incident at Pondok Rangon, East Jakarta.

I tell you, he was not a looter. He was just a student at SMA (senior high school) Diponegoro. This should not have happened to him, this should not have happened to anybody.

Suminah, 26, worked in one of the stores in Rawabening, East Jakarta, that were burned during riots.

You cannot imagine what I felt when I saw rioters burn and loot the stores.

Earlier, our boss had told us that we were supposed to meet him on Sunday (May 17) because he wanted to give us instructions and assign us our shifts.

He gives us only Rp 150,000 every month and I thought he might tell me to work a few more Sundays, so I was angry and purposely came late.

I am so glad I came late. I was supposed to reach there at 7 a.m. but I got there at 8:15 a.m. I did not see my friends or my boss. I'm sure they might have run off or might not even have shown up but I saw the rioting and the crazy people just kept on burning things.

I ran out of there and got back home. I arrived home after one-and-a-half hours. I don't know whether I could still work there but I am so glad I still have my baby (2-year old) with me.

Already, the fires here scared me so much. I don't know ... I am so confused. I don't know what to do and I have no family here. I live alone. I left my husband in Salatiga, Central Java, a year ago and I live alone here with my child.

I am depending on my neighbors and friends at work, that is if I ever meet them again, to help me.

Ali, a gas-station attendant who lives in the slum area near the railway tracks of Jl Angkasa, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

I work at the gas station in Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta. I did not work on Thursday and Friday but I came in on Saturday. I am sure the station has done very good business over the past two days because people have been filling their cars and containers as if it was water and did not cost anything.

At least 150 cars came in the 14 hours that I worked on the Saturday. It could be more ... it was so crowded.

This is good for me. I earned an extra Rp 40,000 in that one day. I thank God that of the three places burned in this area, mine was not touched.

I am considering sending my three children and their mother to stay at her sister's place in a kampong in North Jakarta ... I don't know ... there also it is not safe. She said that Mangga Dua (a shopping center in North Jakarta) was burned down. I am only worried about them ... but things look OK now. Let's see what God has in store for this country.

I found very little food and snacks left, though, in the warung (food stalls). I bought coffee, chips and snacks for home.

Raymon, 40, owner of a small stall that sells food and other necessities on Jl. Bungur Besar Raya, Central Jakarta.

I live in the slum area near the railway tracks of Jl. Angkasa, Central Jakarta. On Thursday, rioters burned three places here. One of them was mine.

My chairs and a table have been burned. Thank God that I don't have a TV set and my wife and children were out of the house at the time.

Since Thursday afternoon, I and my family (wife and two children, age 10 and 12) have moved to one of my friend's units (small rooms, one room for each family) here which, Alhamdullilah (thank God), did not get burned.

Still, I think I might leave my wife and children at my niece's place in Bogor ... I don't know.

It was people with devilish souls (rioters) who started the burning. These places are all wall to wall.

People from almost all of the rooms came with buckets of whatever water they had. They took water from the wells to put out the fires. They acted very quickly. Fires started at around 1 p.m. They were put out in a matter of 40 minutes.

Due to the riots, I did not dare open my stall on Thursday and Friday.

You cannot imagine the business I did on Saturday and yesterday (Sunday). I am expecting the same for today. People were lining up to buy the most unnecessary of things.

They were buying soap, toothpaste. Of course, coffee, snacks, chips, sweets ... almost everything was sold on Saturday. I made 30 percent more on that day than what I make normally. (ylt/edt)