City asked to help those evicted

JAKARTA: The City Council called on the city administration to provide assistance to more than 3,000 illegal squatters along West Flood Canal in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, who have been rendered homeless after their shacks were demolished by the authorities on Monday.

"The administration must help them," said Maringan Pangaribuan, head of Commission A at City Council.

Maringan lambasted the administration's forcible manner in demolishing the illegal squatters, voicing similar criticism made by the National Commission for Human Rights.

Around 600 shacks huddled along a two-kilometer-stretch of the canal were bulldozed in the raid. --JP