District court rules against flood victims

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.