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.