Grave relocation protested

Grave relocation protested

TANGERANG (JP): The Tangerang mayoralty decided yesterday to
abandon its plan to relocate graves from the Tanah Gocap cemetery
in Karawaci to Kedaung Baru village in Batuceper due to
opposition from local people who were angry that they were not
consulted about the plan.

The decision was made in a meeting between Tangerang Mayor H.
Djakaria Machmud and community leaders at Kedaung Wetan village.
The mayor apologized to the residents for not consulting with
them before implementing the plan.

Under the plan, the mayoralty will establish a 10-hectare
cemetery for Buddhist people. In the first stage, a cemetery will
be used to relocate 310 graves from Tanah Gocap, which will be
demolished for the construction of a road project.

However, after seven of 310 graves were relocated to the new
cemetery on Friday, they were dug up by local people in the
evening. They did the same thing on the following day after
officers buried the remains again. Some of the remains were even
burned by the protesters.

Due to the decision to abandon the relocation at Kedaung Baru,
99 holes already prepared will be closed up. The mayoralty will
instead relocate the graves to the Rawa Kucing cemetery in
Kedaung Wetan.

Commenting on the mayoralty's decision to relocate the graves
to the other area, Kiat Eng, 40, of the Padumutara Foundation in
charge of handling the burial of Buddhist people, said, "We'll
just do whatever the mayoralty decides."

However, he expressed concern over poor planning which led to
the removal of graves. (41/hhr)