NGO Activists condemn squatter evictions
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The involvement of public order officers, policemen and military officers in the eviction of around 10,000 illegal occupants of private-owned land at Jembatan Besi area, Tambora, West Jakarta, has been protested by urban activists.
The Urban Poor Network, a group of non-governmental organizations which includes the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), accused on Thursday the West Jakarta mayoralty administration as conspiring with businesspeople.
"The civil servants -- who should have protected and served the people -- evicted them from their houses to serve the interests of PT Cakra Wira Bumi Mandala, without any concern about where these people could go," the Network said in a statement.
The mayoralty, through its public order officers and with the assistance of police, military and, allegedly, thugs hired by the company, began to evict residents from the 5.5 hectares of land on Tuesday. The land belongs to PT Cakra Wira Bumi Mandala, which reportedly plans to resume building a business district there. The eviction turned violent, with residents complaining of not being warned about the action.
The residents -- who mostly rented makeshift houses in the area -- are now camping in open fields near their old homes.
To help residents, the Network opened a public kitchen on Thursday providing meals.
Voicing similar concerns, the Jakarta Resident Forum (Fakta) coordinator Azas Tigor Nainggolan underlined that the eviction should not have occurred.
Tigor, who is also a lawyer, said that the company should have filed a civil suit against the illegal occupants and taken more humane measures in vacating them from the land... "instead of paying and hiring the public order officials, police, military and thugs".
"In this case, the Jakarta administration and the police obviously breached the law and had become 'the hit men' of the owners," he said.
Fakta has recorded a series of evictions that claimed lives:
During 2001, the city administration carried out 45 evictions, in which three people were shot -- when they refused to move-- and 19 others died.
In 2002, another 4,792 people were evicted from their houses.
Fakta stated that in the last three years, 591 "unexplained" fires burned down the housing of the poor.
"Komnas HAM had issued a moratorium on eviction of residents of Teluk Gong, North Jakarta, on Dec. 2001, but did not act when the administration violated it. Now, Komnas HAM should set up a team to investigate all evictions carried out by city administration, as the evictions may be in violation of the residents' basic rights," Tigor asserted.