District court rules against flood victims

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Dozens of flood victims packed a court room at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday and booed the judges who ruled against them in a class action suit case against the President, the West Java governor, and the Jakarta governor.

Presiding judge Kornel Sianturi underlined that the plaintiffs had mistakenly demanded accountability from the three accused, while the court did not consider them to have any legal obligation to take preventive measures or to minimize the impact of the flood which inundated the city earlier this year.

He said the plaintiffs should have filed the suit against the mayors.

"The officials who are directly responsible for public services are the mayors," he said.

In the ruling, the court found that President Megawati Soekarnoputri has no normative obligation to handle floods in Jakarta, while West Java Governor A.R. Nuriana had no significant contribution to the flood.

The court also found Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso not guilty for not warning Jakartans about the possible floods and for delayed rescue operations and aid.

Lawyer Azas Tigor Nainggolan, the coordinator of the advocacy team -- which consists of 32 pro bono lawyers, immediately told the court that the 15 representatives of the flood victims would appeal to the Jakarta High Court within the next two weeks.

The advocacy team's secretary Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto stressed that Sutiyoso should be held responsible for the floods.

"I think the court took the accused's defense, which tried to shift the blame to the mayors. The court failed to take into account Law No. 34/1999 on the administration of Jakarta, which gives the governor the power to control the capital unlike other administrations," he told reporters.

He argued that the President was also guilty as she should have developed the East Flood Canal along East Jakarta up to North Jakarta to prevent floods in the city, as 40 percent of the area is located below sea level. The budget of the local administration alone is not sufficient to construct the canal.

He also pointed at Nuriana's failure to coordinate with Jakarta when he received the information that floods had broken through the Depok sluice which is under his jurisdiction and that the floods would soon storm through the capital.

The plaintiffs had earlier demanded that the accused pay each of them Rp 100 million (around US$11,235) for material losses and a total of Rp 1.2 trillion to repair damaged public facilities.

The plaintiffs also sued the accused for their failure to take necessary emergency action, which forced more than 97,000 families or 365,000 people to leave their homes and seek temporary shelter for several weeks.

The floods, which hit Jakarta in January and February inundated almost the whole city with water levels up to five meters in some areas. Several people died in the floods and thousands suffered from diseases related to the floods such as diarrhea and skin ailments.

The plaintiffs represented five groups that suffered during the recent floods: victims whose family members had died, those who fell sick due to flood-related illnesses, those who lost their property, those whose property was damaged and those who had lost their means of livelihood due to the floods.