Eviction injuries take their toll
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A man eventually died of injuries he sustained a week after a clash with security officers who forced out occupants of state land in Kampung Baru area in East Cengkareng subdistrict, West Jakarta.
Toto Supriyanto, 35, died after kidney failure early Wednesday at the Islamic Hospital in his hometown Klaten, Central Java, where he was being treated the past several days. Toto was survived by a wife and a 20-month-old son.
His youngest brother Parno said on Thursday that Toto's kidney was punctured by his broken rib resulting from the fight with West Jakarta public order officers and members of the police mobile brigade.
"Both of us were taken to the West Jakarta police precinct but released after 24 hours. Toto didn't complain about his ailment at that time, but his condition had been worsening ever since, so we took him home," Parno told The Jakarta Post over the phone from Klaten.
Chairman of the National Commission on Child Protection, Seto Mulyadi, said that he had also received a report of a possible sexual harassment case involving a 15-year-old girl who was found in a state of shock at the Kota railway station, West Jakarta. The girl claimed that she was taken from Kampung Baru after the eviction incident by several men clad in blue uniforms. The public order officers wear blue.
In cooperation with the National Commission on Human Rights and the National Commission on Women, Seto said they would join the call to stop forced evictions and violence during and after the eviction as well as facilitating talks with the Jakarta administration and state-run Perum Perumnas.
"The intimidation towards the occupants, who have insisted on staying in makeshift tents near their old homes, is still going on. Similar repression also took place against those who filed reports of violence at the rights commissions," he added.
The eviction operation at the 55-hectare plot belonging to Perum Perumnas continued on Thursday where the remaining 1,060 house buildings in Kampung Pedongkelan in Kapuk subdistrict, West Jakarta, were bulldozed down.
Kampung Pedongkelan stood on 25 hectares of Perum Perumnas' land since 1998, while Kampung Baru, formerly a home to Toto, stood on the remaining 30 hectares.
The former occupants lined up to receive their "compensation", with three categories: Rp 250,000 (US$29) for wooden houses; Rp 1.5 million for semi-permanent; and Rp 3 million for permanent houses. They are now expected to leave for good, but most claimed they were not given enough time to look for another place to live.
"We were just told at 10 a.m., when the bulldozers were already here. I could only save my belongings, but where are we going to sleep tonight?" Sudin, an employee at a printing company who holds a Jakarta ID, told the Post.
Arief Fadillah, head of the West Jakarta Public Order Agency claimed that the notice from his office was kept by Hasan Basri, known to be the man who sold the state land to other residents.
"He is the richest man in this area. He is now wanted by the police," he said.
Angry residents were seen looting Hasan's large house.
Perum Perumnas official Didin Sutadi, who heads the Bumi Citra Indah project in Cengkareng, said that the land clearance had been planned since 2000 but was aborted due to a clash where the head of the mayoralty's public order agency at that time was injured.