Locals maintain pressure on Bojong plant
Theresia Sufa and Dyah Apsari, The Jakarta Post/Bogor/Jakarta
Restless residents were still guarding the controversial Bojong waste treatment plant in Bogor, following a clash earlier on Wednesday with riot police who tried to clear the road block on the main road leading to the plant.
Opposing the presence of the plant in the neighborhood which they feared would cause harm to the environment and their health, the residents were trying to sabotage the plant's trial run scheduled for Wednesday.
A team of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) visited the plant in Klapanunggal district later in the day and talked to the enraged residents.
Head of the team, rights commission member MM Billah, asked the residents to calm down as Komnas HAM would look into which basic rights were being violated by the presence of the dump.
The visiting team members comprised Risma Halim, the commission's researcher on civil rights and Eko Dahono, the commission's investigator.
"We hope the residents will not resort to violence to resolve the matter ... we ourselves have to protect our basic right to live and not to be tortured. We can always bring the matter to the government, because it's not only an environmental issue as political issues are also involved," Billah said.
The residents have frequently staged protests against the plant. The most damaging was in November last year when the residents set fire to part of the plant. In the melee, the police shot several people and arrested dozens of others.
The Bojong plant, which aims to use bale press and incinerator technology, was designed to treat one-third of Jakarta's 6,000 tons of daily waste. The operator is a private company PT Wira Guna Sejahtera.
Commenting on the residents' latest protest, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso criticized the residents who he said gave a bad impression to investors in the country.
"Why can't they let the trial run go on? If the result is positive, the plant is there to operate. If it is negative, just close it down," he said.
The residents have been on guard in the vicinity of the dump since Tuesday night.
The dump operator had earlier canceled a trial run planned for July 27 as the residents formed a human blockade around the facility.
As riot police tried to pull out tree branches and logs placed in the middle of the road, the residents attempted to stop them by hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at the officers.
The conflict finally ended at about 2:30 a.m. when the police were recalled from the location.
The clash was the eighth since the construction of the plant in 2002.
Bogor City Council also called on the Bogor administration on Wednesday not to hold the trial run.
"Its presence in the neighborhood is already a violation of the prevailing laws ... any trial run should be prohibited," said councillor Lalu Suryade, head of Commission A for legal and administrative affairs.