More to be made homeless

JAKARTA (JP): After demolishing about 300 makeshift houses in Marunda and evicting the residents, the North Jakarta Mayoralty announced on Friday that it planned to demolish more than 500 makeshift houses along the flood canal in Penjaringan area.

"The demolition will be conducted soon after we inform the residents," North Jakarta Mayor Soebagio told reporters after meeting Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall.

He admitted that the mayoralty had failed to prevent the canal banks from being occupied by the people.

"We should have prevented them from the beginning, so that there would not be hundreds of makeshift houses like there are now," he said.

In a related development, he claimed that Sutiyoso had approved the mayoralty's action to evict 1,500 illegal residents from vacant land in Marunda on Wednesday.

"They are illegal squatters. There is no problem about that," Soebagio said.

The mayoralty public order officers reportedly bulldozed the 300 houses and burned them down. Some residents accused the mayoralty of using hoodlums during the demolition.

The land, which belonged to state-owned industrial estate developer PT Kawasan Berikat Nusantara, was offered to the residents three years ago for cultivation due to the economic crisis.

The developer has asked the residents to leave the land since last year, but they refused. (jun)