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.