Man dies as pedicab raid turns violent
Man dies as pedicab raid turns violent
JAKARTA (JP): One official was killed and two others were
injured when a crackdown by city public order officials on becak
(pedicab) drivers turned violent in Roxy and nearby Grogol on
Tuesday.
Hundreds of angry pedicab drivers aided by crowds of people
armed themselves with molotov cocktails, machetes, steel bars and
stones. They set fire to two pick-up trucks belonging to the city
administration and beat an official to death in the riot provoked
by an attempt by the authorities to evict them from the main
streets in the area.
The riot also caused damage to eight other cars and a
motorcycle and prompted Roxy Mas International Trade Center to
suspend its business.
Eyewitnesses said the riot started when the becak drivers and
the crowds attacked some 500 officials from the city
administration arriving at Jl. Zainul Arifin, West Jakarta, to
raid pedicabs operating there.
Raya Siahaan, the head of the city's center for monitoring
social disorder, said the becak drivers apparently had prior
knowledge of the raid and greeted officials with all weapons they
had.
They stoned five cars dropping off officials coming for the
crackdown at 10.30 am. The officials responded by trying to hit
rioters with their batons. They fled, however, when they realized
they were outnumbered.
The rioters chased the officials and set fire to a Toyota
Kijang car owned by the city administration.
Central Jakarta Police officers tried to disperse the mob by
firing tear gas.
Some continued to chase officials escaping toward Jl. Hashim
Asyari, Central Jakarta, while some others marched toward Jl.
Kiyai Tapa and Jl. S. Parman in Grogol, West Jakarta.
On Jl. Hashim Asyari near Roxy Mas International Trade Center,
they badly beat an official named Matsani and burned down another
car belonging to the municipal administration.
Matsani, 52, died after being treated at a nearby hospital.
The crowd moving toward Grogol destroyed two cars also owned
by the city administration. After reaching the former West
Jakarta mayoralty building on Jl. S. Parman they destroyed
several cars and a motorcycle.
Siahaan insisted that the municipal administration would
continue to crackdown on becak.
"The incident will not stop us from conducting raids on
pedicabs," he said, arguing that the city administration had
banned becak from operating in the city through Regulation No.
11/1988.
Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang said
that they had yet to arrest any suspect in the incident.
"We will continue to investigate the case," he said.
On Monday, some 74 pedicab drivers set up a union with the
support of Urban Poor Consortium, a non-governmental
organization, to fight attempts to evict them from the city.
The Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) condemned the raid saying it
was against the law.
The becak drivers intend to fight for their right to operate
in the capital.
"We have received information that becak drivers and street
vendors from Greater Jakarta will hold a rally at the City
Council on Wednesday," Paulus R. Mahulette, the operational
director of LBH's Jakarta chapter, was quoted by Antara as
saying.
In a related development, about 200 native Jakartans grouped
under the Betawi Security Movement (Gerak Betawi), staged a rally
at the Central Jakarta mayoralty building as a display of support
for the ban on becak in the city.
Lulung, the leader of the group, told The Jakarta Post that
the operation of becak was against city regulations, "that's why
we oppose their operation."
The authorities phased out the pedicabs in 1988 due to
worsening traffic jams in the city, claiming they were inhumane
to the drivers. But, economic conditions have caused an influx of
people from outside the city seeking work as becak drivers. (04)