More people to get marching orders as eviction continues
More people to get marching orders as eviction continues
Bambang Nurbianto and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
Thousands of more families will soon be left homeless as the
Jakarta Administration is set to continue its policy of evicting
squatters living illegally on privately and state-owned land
across the city.
Around 700 families living on a 12-hectare site next to the
Taman Anggrek Mall on Jl. S. Parman, West Jakarta, will be the
next to be evicted, followed by around 200 families in Tegal
Alur, also in West Jakarta.
"We are targeting the freeing up of the land at both locations
before entering the fasting month," said West Jakarta Mayor
Sarimun Hadisaputro on Monday after a meeting with Jakarta
Governor Sutiyoso and the president of state housing authority
Perum Perumnas president M. Latief Malangyudha.
The fasting month will start on Oct. 27.
North Jakarta Mayor Effendi Annas made a similar statement,
saying that his administration would support private sector and
state companies that wished to demolish houses built illegally in
his municipality.
"North Jakarta has long been a mecca for squatters," Annas
told the media.
Annas said that the squatters' shacks and houses built on land
owned by state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina in
Plumpang, by PT Jasa Marga along the toll road in Pluit and along
the banks of the Angke river and the Cengkareng Main Drain.
Annas said that PT Jasa Marga and the Ministry of Resettlement
and Regional Infrastructure were expected to immediately evict
people living under the toll road as their presence was
disrupting the lives of local people.
"I hope the ministry will organize the evictions as it was the
ministry that allowed them to settle here at the beginning. We'll
help if they need it," he said.
Latief said that Perumnas also planned to clear squatters off
2.7 hectares of land in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, and 20
hectares of land in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta.
In the last two weeks, municipality public order officers
forcibly demolished more than 1,600 shacks built on 55-hectare
site owned by Perum Perumnas. A man died after clashes with
officers while a girl was injured during the evictions.
Some 25 hectares of the land will be used as a commercial
zones for shopping malls and office buildings.
Latief said that some 15 of the 25 hectares would be sold to
the private sector while the rest would continue to be managed by
Perumnas. The remaining 30 hectares would be used for apartments.
"The administration has give its approval for our project to
turn the land into a commercial center," he said.
During a meeting on the latest evictions held by the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the National Commission
on Child Protection and the National Commission on Violence
Against Women, key officials from the municipality, the West
Jakarta Police and Perumnas failed to show up.
"We only want to serve as a mediator between them and the
residents because this series of evictions -- although they
prefer to call them public law and order operations -- have
caused casualties. We hope they will come to the next meeting on
Wednesday," said Komnas HAM vice chairman Solahuddin Wahid, who
heads a team set up to investigate the evictions.
He added that the team would study the procedures and
approaches used by the administration during the evictions.
"Our next step will be to write to Sutiyoso asking the
administration to halt the evictions and to employ a peaceful
approach involving negotiations with the people."