Forced eviction may leave 35,000 families homeless

Forced eviction may leave 35,000 families homeless

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Around 35,000 families here would be left homeless if the
Jakarta administration continued with the controversial
demolition of slum areas across the capital, including those
along the city's riverbanks, an activist said on Wednesday.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan from the Jakarta People's Forum (Fakta)
said his group's records indicated that 7,000 families had become
victims of the demolitions carried out over the past few weeks.

"If the forced evictions continue, we estimate the number will
be five times larger," he told The Jakarta Post.

The forced evictions were usually carried out by
administration officials, with back up from the police. In some
cases, residents complained that the officials did not give any
advance warning of the demolitions and suddenly appeared with
bulldozers to destroy their semi-permanent houses.

Nainggolan deplored the administration's methods of forcing
people to leave the affected areas, saying that with forced
evictions, not only did people lose their homes, but their
children also had to leave schools.

"The people don't want much. They just want to be heard and to
be given a chance to live here (in Jakarta)," Nainggolan said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a rally outside the City
Council building. The protest involved some 60 people, including,
among others, becak (pedicab) drivers, victims of the evictions
and street vendors.

Fakta demanded that the administration revoke the 11/1988
regulation on public order.

"It has been proven that the public order officials often use
repressive approaches and resort to violence in dealing with the
public," Nainggolan said.

During the rally, the protesters carried two white monkeys and
a toy gorilla which bore the words "makananku Rp 3,2 milyar (my
meal costs Rp 3.2 billion). They were apparently designed to mock
the city administration, which had allocated Rp 3.2 billion a
year for the care of four apes that were scheduled to arrive in
the capital soon.

In a statement they distributed to passers by, Fakta stated
that in the last four months, the city administration had ruined
the livelihoods of 6,000 becak drivers and 2,700 street vendors,
and made 6,774 families homeless.

City councillors said they regretted the city administration's
approach to the evictions, but did not offer any concrete
solutions to the problem.

In a related development, the National Commission on Violence
Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) recommended a 100-day moratorium
on all forced evictions conducted by the city administration
against poor Jakartans and on housing demolitions, which were
considered to be violations of the resolution of the United
Nations High Commission on Human Rights on people's housing
rights.

Saparinah Sadli, the commission's chairwoman, said that during
the moratorium, it was expected the administration could build a
constructive dialogue that would cover all aspects of problems
affecting the city's poor.

The commission also urged the establishment of a working group
to review the laws and regulations issued by the city
administration that were considered discriminatory toward the
poor.