Killing sparks Matramam clash

Killing sparks Matramam clash

JAKARTA (JP): A fresh brawl broke out between the feuding
neighborhoods of Palmeriam and Berlan in East Jakarta on Sunday,
shortly after the burial of a Berlan resident who was murdered a
day earlier by a group of unidentified men.

No fatalities or serious damage were reported during the
fierce afternoon clash in which locals from both areas pelted
each other with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Some of them were seen arming themselves with air rifles,
swords, sickles, smoke bombs and firecrackers.

The situation was tense in the no-man's-land of Jl. Matraman
Raya, which marks the borderline between the two rival
neighborhoods. As usual, traffic on the busy thoroughfare was
halted for at least one hour as no vehicles dared to pass
through.

The mobs, however, demolished parts of the newly-constructed
two-meter-high steel fence passing down the median strip of Jl.
Matraman Raya.

The disturbance, which started at about 1 p.m., involved
hundreds of people from the two warring subdistricts and was
finally quelled an hour later upon the arrival of some 50 riot
police.

The officers, equipped with guns and backed up by water
cannon, remained on guard in the area until dawn.

The Berlan resident, Yosef Suryahadi, 24, who had earlier been
buried, was said by witnesses to have been fatally stabbed in the
head, face and right arm by a group of unidentified men.

Yosef, who worked as a parking attendant in the area, was
rushed to the emergency room of Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital in Central Jakarta, but died on arrival.

As in the case of previous clashes in the area, such an
unresolved issue was capable of reigniting the conflict between
the two neighborhoods, which have had a long history of
destructive infighting, despite the reconciliation efforts made
by the authorities.

In the last clash in July, some 20 people from Palmeriam
subdistrict were shot by air rifles fired by people from the
Berlan subdistrict. (07)