Embassies get immunity from 3-in-1

Embassies get immunity from 3-in-1

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of embassies in Jakarta have submitted queries to the
city administration as to whether the extended three-in-one
traffic policy applies to diplomatic officers.

City spokesman Muhayat told the press on Wednesday after a
meeting between Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Yutaka Iimura
and Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall that the Japanese embassy was
one of a number of diplomatic missions that had submitted
questions, including the French, Germany and British embassies.

Sutiyoso said that diplomatic staff were not bound by the
policy.

"We will, of course, comply with the international rules on
diplomatic immunity as long as they use the official attributes
of their countries," he said.

French embassy press attache Presi Mandari told The Jakarta
Post that the embassy had sought clarification over the traffic
policy.

"But we sent the letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
instead of the city administration," she said, without revealing
the ministry's response.

The city administration extended the three-in-one traffic
policy from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to
support the success of Jakarta's only bus corridor, known locally
as the "busway", which stretches along the 12.9 kilometer
showcase route from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West
Jakarta.

Private cars are obliged to carry at least three people in the
restricted zone, and motorists can be fined up to Rp 1 million
(US$119) and/or sentenced to one month in jail for violations
under Law No. 14/1992 on highway traffic.

Many private motorists have been reduced to sitting in
seemingly endless traffic jams along the four narrow and
congested alternative routes running north to south as they try
to avoid the restricted zone.