Millions evicted yearly for urban developments

Millions evicted yearly for urban developments

By T. Sima Gunawan

ISTANBUL, Turkey (JP): The United Nations Center for Human
Settlements (UNCHS) records that millions of people are evicted
from their homes each year to make way for new urban
developments.

Many people living in the heart of big cities, including
Jakarta, have to leave their homes to make way for major
restructuring projects. These include the construction of office
buildings, hotels, convention centers, as well as transport and
communication facilities, UNHCS says in An Urbanizing World,
Global Report on Human Settlement 1996.

The book was launched by the Secretary-General of the UN
Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat), Wally N'Dow, here
yesterday.

Because of the evictions, there are relatively slow population
growth rates within central cities -- or even population declines
-- with much higher population growth rates in the outer areas,
the report said.

It said that in Central Jakarta, the growth rate during the
1980s was around 3.1 percent a year. However, the urban
population growth rates in the three neighboring districts, which
are part of the Jakarta Greater Metropolitan Area (Bogor,
Tangerang and Bekasi), were 11.7, 20.9 and 19.8 percent
respectively.

The report said that nearly 30,000 Jakarta residents were
evicted in 1991 for urban renovation.

"It would be wrong to suggest that no redevelopment can take
place within cities that displace people," the report said.

UNCHS acknowledged that inevitably, in any rapidly developing
city, there will be a need to redevelop certain areas, and the
need for public agencies to acquire land for infrastructure and
services.

The report argued that the issue was not whether redevelopment
should take place, but the fact that it is being undertaken with
little or no dialogue with the people being displaced.

The issues to be considered are "the lack of respect for the
needs of those evicted and the lack of any attempt to ...
minimize the scale of the evictions and the disruption caused to
those who have to move," the report said.

What could possibly be considered the largest level of
evictions occurred in Seoul, where millions were evicted between
1966 and 1990. Between 1983 and 1988, 720,000 people lost their
homes to demolitions and redevelopment, while 90 percent of those
evicted did not acquire an apartment in the redeveloped site,
according to the report.

Recent case studies disclose the trauma of evictions, where
people are forced from homes and neighborhoods where they have
lived for years or even decades. Not only do they lose their
homes, but also their friends and neighbors, as they scatter in
search for other accommodation.

"There are also deaths and injuries caused by violence during
many evictions, and the murder of community leaders who oppose
the evictions," the report said.

Over the past several years, the House of Representatives has
received many reports of forced evictions, both in urban and
rural areas. Among the most notable instances of demolition in
rural areas were those for the development of Kedungombo dam in
Central Java in 1982, and the planned Nipah dam in East Java in
1993.

The process of land appropriation for the Nipah dam, for
instance, was marked with clashes between security officials and
land owners, which left four villagers dead.

According to the UNCHS report, local governments have a major
role in initiating or sanctioning the evictions.

The report did not mention the evictions carried out in
Jakarta to beautify the city for the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation Summit in 1994.

Slum dwellers are evicted and governments justify the
evictions by claiming that slums are "centers of crime and havens
for criminals". They also make the justification because of
health problems in the slums, the report said.