Eviction injuries take their toll

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.