Housing for evicted people proposed

Housing for evicted people proposed

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration finally agreed on Wednesday to provide
homeless people, who had been forcibly evicted by the City Public
Order Office from their dwellings, with low-cost apartments but
asked the central government to help finance their construction.

"We can provide the land, but the government should finance
it," Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso told reporters after meeting
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla and
Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno at
Jusuf's office.

Sutiyoso said his administration planned to allocate a site
near the Ciliwung riverbank in Cawang area, East Jakarta for the
evicted people.

He said the apartment could be rented by the people, who
previously lived in a slum along the riverbank.

The city administration has faced sharp criticism over the
recent forced eviction of people living in slums that has caused
thousands to become homeless.

The ministers agreed in principle that the eviction operation
should not be halted since it was done in an effort to uphold the
law.

"But the way in which the administration conducts the eviction
should be improved," Jusuf told reporters.

Both Jusuf and Soenarno could not state whether they could
finance the construction of the apartment for the evicted people.

Separately, a member of the National Commission on Human
Rights (Komnas Ham) H.S. Dillon regretted the administration's
rejection of the commission's demand to suspend the eviction
operation for the next 100 days.

"They only agreed to suspend the eviction during Ramadhan,"
Dillon said after meeting with city officials at City Hall.

He said the administration feared that the evicted people
would return to the riverbanks if it agreed to the request,
dubbed an eviction moratorium.

He said the commission actually did not object to the
relocation of the people, but the city administration should also
think about the fate of the people, especially their children.

"We have no objection to the land being cleared. But the
administration should think of the children -- their education,"
he said.

The meeting which was attended by deputy governor for
administrative affairs Abdul Kahfi and deputy governor for social
welfare affairs Djailani, agreed to set up two teams, Dillon
said.

He said the first team would work on provisions for the future
of the evicted people while the second team would review the
eviction policy to avoid human rights violations.