Criminals take refuge in damaged buildings

JAKARTA (JP): Many deserted buildings, damaged or burnt during last May's riots, are being used by street criminals as their hideouts, a police officer said on Monday.

Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said that a lot of street criminals, who operate at the city's major junctions extorting money from motorists, frequently fled to these buildings when chased by police officers.

"We therefore urge the building owners to repair their properties, or if they can't afford to do that, put fences around the buildings to prevent criminals from entering," he said.

A police source disclosed that the buildings suspected to have been used as hideouts by criminals included one of the Robinson Department stores in Pasar Minggu, city-owned Cipete market building, both in South Jakarta, and the Super Ekonomi department store in Depok.

"These buildings are located near main streets, so many homeless people use them as temporary shelters, but some of these people, we know, often practice crimes on the streets as well," he told reporters.

If necessary, Aritonang said, the building owners could assign some of their employees to guard the properties or ask for help from the police.

During the massive and bloody riots which hit the city on May 13 and May 14, 1998, more than 6,000 buildings and other public facilities worth about Rp 2.5 trillion were damaged or burnt.

The riots, which led to the downfall of former president Soeharto on May 21, also claimed an estimated 1,200 lives and left most Jakartans in fear of the widespread lawlessness.

Looting broke out in most parts of the city, targeting shops, shopping centers and malls owned by wealthy business people, mainly Indonesians of Chinese descent.

Aritonang said the damaged buildings also attracted people to scavenge wood, bricks and iron, and other usable materials from the rubble, which could be categorized as looting.

Earlier this month, the city witnessed rampant looting at a deserted warehouse compound in North Jakarta, where hundreds of people came to scrounge for old iron, bricks and wood from the unused automotive assembling factory.

Six people reportedly died during the looting spree.

"If the building owners don't object to the looting, it's their problem, but our task is to prevent the rising number of victims in these activities," he said.

Aritonang also said that the damaged buildings endangered those using them for temporary shelters and also nearby residents, as they could easily collapse.

"No one can predict when those burned buildings will fall down," he said. (emf)