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

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)