Pejagalan residents bemoan demolition

Emmy Fitri and Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A woman living in a squatter settlement along the West Flood Canal in North Jakarta said that the residents of the area had been accustomed to hardship, but that what had just happened to them was unbearable.

"Day to day existence is so hard for us. Why do we still have to suffer these extra woes," Sulis, a mother of two children, said on Thursday.

The squatters, who live along a bank of the canal, lost their houses on Saturday after fire razed three neighborhoods, leaving 600 families, or over 2,500 people, homeless. The people have since then been staying in temporary shanties built around local mosques, while some others have found refuge in a health clinic.

On Wednesday, a number of officials from the North Jakarta public order office, accompanied by the police and bulldozers, came and demanded that the squatters vacate the area.

Five people were hit by rubber bullets after police opened fire to warn the squatters to back down as their discussions with the officials were becoming heated. Several other residents were beaten.

The officials came again on Thursday to clear away the debris of the burned buildings.

"The officials did not give us any alternative. They said it was unlawful to occupy land that did not belong to us," a resident, Harsudi, said.

"I have been living here for 15 years. Nobody told me this before," he told The Jakarta Post.

"We will stay here no matter what. Even if the bulldozers finally crush us!" Harsudi, who works as a security guard at Tanjung Priok sea port, said.

The squatters admitted that they did not possess title deeds, but they were refusing to leave because the government had treated them violently and failed to provide them with a place to live.

They also called on the city administration to pay attention to the plight of their children who could no longer go to school as their books and uniforms had all been consumed by the fire.

According to mayoralty officials, the authorities are also insisting that the squatters leave the area as it is dangerous to live near the canal river as floods could strike at anytime.

In a related development, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said that the city administration would not pay any compensation to the residents whose houses along the riverbank were demolished.

"There will be no compensation since the squatters had illegally occupied the land. If they were paid compensation, they would simply go and squat on another site," Sutiyoso told reporters.

He suggested that the squatters who were not Jakarta residents should return to their hometowns.

Separately, North Jakarta Mayor Soebagio said the mayoralty would make ex gratia payments of Rp 100,000 (US$10) to each squatter.

"We hope they'll be able to rent houses. That's enough to rent a house for a month," Soebagio said.

He said the authorities would demolish more squatter settlements along the canal in the near future.