City starts to clear red-light district for sports center

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Since November -- the Ramadhan fasting month -- the East Jakarta municipal administration has been clearing a red-light district that has been operating for 44 years in Ciracas to make way for the development of the East Jakarta Sports Center.

The administration has allocated Rp 35 billion (US$4.12 million) to compensate owners of the 1.8 hectare land. The compensation is to be disbursed in full by Dec. 15.

"The municipality is paying compensation fees at rates above the sales value of taxed property (NJOP)," Zainal Arifin, a local resident appointed by the administration to manage the eviction, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Arifin, who succeeded in persuading the landowners to give up their land for the sports center, said he met with several challenges, including those from a number of military officers who, he alleged, had side businesses in the red-light district.

"I was able to convince the officers. And now, bar and brothel owners have left the area," he said.

It was the second red-light district to be cleared by the city administration. The first was the Kalijodo red-light district in Penjaringan, West Jakarta, undertaken in March.

Ciracas subdistrict head Tabrani told the Post that most brothel owners had rented the land from locals.

"When the landowners sold their plots to the government, there was nothing they could do but leave," he said.

Locals said the red-light district sprouted up in 1959.

"In the beginning, military personnel, who lived in nearby military complexes, often visited the place. Later, when the location had been developed, many customers, including those in luxury cars, also frequented Ciracas on weekends," said Arifin.

He said cars parked along Jl. Raya Bogor on Saturday evenings used to cause traffic jams in the area.

"The place was also so crowded, one could barely walk."

However, the situation had changed completely in the last 10 years, as less and less people visited the red-light district, which is now very filthy.

The red-light district used to accommodate 74 buildings, including 16 bars and nine brothels. The remaining buildings comprised beverage stalls selling alcohol and several gambling dens.

Around 500 sex workers, mostly from the northern coast of West Java and Central Java, made a living in Ciracas, as did around 300 local residents working as waitresses, parking attendants and cleaners -- not to mention the 100 thugs or so who ensured security in the area.

After the brothels and bars were demolished, many sex workers had no idea what to do.

A sex worker from Sukabumi, West Java, who declined to give her name, told the Post that she would not leave Jakarta.

"I don't know where I'll go, but perhaps I'll try to find a job at a billiard hall," she said.

The construction of the sports center -- comprising a swimming pool, an indoor tennis court, a soccer field, a basketball court and a volleyball court -- will break ground next year.