City forcibly evicts thousands of squatters

Rendy A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration forcibly evicted on Monday more than 3,000 illegal squatters along the West Flood Canal in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, despite desperate last-minute outcries from local residents and non-governmental organizations.

The city administration deployed three bulldozers and at least 700 officers from the public order agency, security guards and the police to demolish about 600 shacks huddled along a two- kilometer-stretch of the canal.

The officers, led by Toni Boediono from the North Jakarta Public Order Agency, arrived at the scene at 11 a.m. and were greeted with a shower of stones thrown by angry residents.

The residents had previously demolished a bridge linking the location to the main highway. But the officers managed to build a temporary bridge, which then enabled them to get to the slum area.

The residents, helped by the non-governmental organization, Jaringan Anti Penggusuran (Network to Combat Forced Eviction), at first tried to negotiate with the officers.

But the negotiations turned ugly as a resident called Fadil, 24, was beaten by dozens of officers, who then forced their way into the slum area to carry out the demolition work.

The beating enraged local residents and hardened them to take a more violent approach. Many of them threw stones at the officers. They also blocked the Soekarno-Hatta toll road, leading to Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng.

One of the residents, Boy, 24, was arrested by Penjaringan subprecinct police for burning an unused tire in the middle of the highway, which caused a two-kilometer-long traffic jam.

According to the Penjaringan subprecinct chief, Setiabudi Supardan, the demolition work was part of the city administration's plan to normalize the functioning of the West Flood Canal.

"The eviction was a continuation of last October's eviction that targeted 1,080 shacks along the canal," he said.

Setiabudi added that the residents had already received kerohiman (humanity) money as token compensation, ranging from Rp 100,000 to Rp 500,000. However, not all residents had received the money, which was suspected by some residents to have been corrupted.

According to J. Sudrijanta, the coordinator of Jaringan Anti Penggusuran, the city administration had violated the 100-day moratorium of eviction that was issued on Nov. 21, 2001 after being agreed by the city administration, the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the National Commission for Women's Human Rights and the National Commission for Child Protection.

He added that the demolition proved that the city administration had shown no sign of consideration for the poor.

The latest mass eviction has added to the long list of forcible evictions carried out by the city administration over the last year. According to the latest data issued by Jaringan Anti Penggusuran, during the year 2001 the government had conducted 45 forced evictions, which had caused approximately 35,000 people to lose their homes.

All of them demanded that the city administration provide them with appropriate compensation or give them a replacement to their demolished houses.