Pejagalan residents bemoan demolition
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.