Evictions violate human rights: Activists
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Human rights experts have demanded that the city administration stop the forced eviction of street vendors and squatters without any legal process as such a practice could be categorized as a serious human rights violation.
Asmara Nababan of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Tuesday that Governor Sutiyoso should be taken to court on charges of human rights violations in connection with a series of forced evictions conducted by the city's Public Order Office.
"Based on international norms, Sutiyoso should be taken to the human rights court for the forced evictions," he said at a seminar on Building Jakarta in the Future.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Resolution No. 77 issued in 1993 clearly prohibits forced eviction. Among countries that have been declared guilty of violating the resolution are the Dominican Republic (1990), Panama (1992), Kenya (1993) and the Philippines (1993).
However, Indonesian Law No. 26/2000 on human rights has yet to include forced eviction as a human rights violation, and therefore the practice cannot be followed by legal process.
Arbi Sanit, a scholar at the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Indonesia, shared Asmara's view, saying the administration has acted discriminately against citizens. He also revealed that the administration tended to act repressively against poor people but compromised with the rich or businessmen.
"While they tend to be abusive toward those living on riverbanks, city officers do nothing against businessmen who are guilty of similar violations," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the seminar.
Debbie Prabawati of the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ) said public order officers did not wish to uphold the law when forcefully evicting people as the law was not implemented consistently.
From 16 forced evictions recorded by the ISJ, 14 of them were linked to land disputes involving the administration, the private sector and squatters living on the land. Only two of 16 cases were connected to law enforcement.
"Poor people, including squatters, street vendors and becak (pedicab) drivers have always been the main target of forced eviction," Debbie said.
She called on the administration to recognize the existence of the poor, particularly street vendors, who have contributed significantly to the gross domestic product in the city since the monetary crisis first hit the country in mid-1997.
Jakarta Bureau of Statistics data shows that the informal sector involves some 107,940 people while data from the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC) claims there are about 500,000.
"Although their contribution to the city is real, their existence is still not recognized. They are always the target of eviction by public order officers," said Debbie.
Victims of forced eviction by the city administration in 2001:
1. 6,000 becak drivers who support 24,000 people
2. At least 3,000 street vendors supporting some 12,000 people
3. 9,774 squatter families or 48,870 people.