City demolishes fishermen's last outpost

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the bright sky on Wednesday afternoon, the day was gloomy for around 300 families of fishermen who packed their belongings and slowly left behind them their homes on the banks of the Muara Angke river.

Aboard traditional fishing boats, with small Indonesian flags waving, some could not stop crying as they had lived on the riverbanks for more than 20 years. The fishermen were evicted by the North Jakarta administration on Wednesday, just days before the starting of Ramadhan, the Muslim fasting month.

Angrily shouting at the 800 security officers present, the families watched their stilt-houses being demolished by two excavators.

The 300 families were the only remaining from more than 800 families, as they had refused the Rp 500,000 (US$58.83) in compensation from the municipality.

They argued that they needed to live near the water as they worked as fishermen.

After crossing the seven-meter wide river, the fishermen unloaded their belongings on the edge of the protected forest. Many, however, were forced to stay on their boats. As Sakinah, 73, said, "I will sleep on the boat tonight. Where else can I sleep?"

With tears running down his cheeks, Jumadi searched for a safe place for his children on the forest's edge.

The fishermen restrained from violence but said that they would not give up.

"We won't stop fighting," Kajidin, chairman of the Traditional Fishermen Union (SNT), said firmly. "And I will never take the money from the administration. I'd rather die of starvation."

The fishermen have been demanding that the administration provide them with a suitable place to live near the water, before tearing down their houses.

Two ministers have called for the administration to halt the evictions until after the Idul Fitri holiday.

Minister of Resettlement and Infrastructure Soenarno met the fishermen on Wednesday and promised to persuade Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso to halt the evictions. Two days earlier, Minister of Maritime and Fishery Affairs Rokhmin Dahuri had made the same promise.

The city administration has conducted a string of evictions throughout the capital in a bid to clear illegal squatters from city owned and privately owned land.

In the letter notifying the fishermen of the evictions, the municipality states that the evictions are part of an attempt to "preserve green belt areas and to clean the river in order to lessen the impact of floods as the rainy season commences.

The fishermen had earlier questioned the construction of two elite housing complexes, Pantai Indah Kapuk on the west side and Pantai Mutiara on the east side.

Pantai Indah Kapuk, which was blamed for flooding the surrounding areas and the toll road connected to the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport in last year's flood, was built on a former mangrove forest. While Pantai Mutiara was built on a reclamation area.

The eviction, the third for most of the fishermen -- after being evicted from Ancol and Muara Karang riverbanks, both in North Jakarta, two decades ago -- has left them homeless.

"We don't have another riverbank to live on," said Raminah, a mother of two.

Eviction -- page 8