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)