Residents attack project site

SEMARANG: About 200 residents from the Bandarharjo sub- district attacked heavy equipment owned by PT Cipta Guna Semarang which they claim has caused flooding in the neighborhood.

"For three days after the company reclaimed fishponds (for a housing project), our houses were inundated by up to three meters of water," Suparno, a resident, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Sutopo, head of the community neighborhood unit, said the residents' unrest started about four months ago when the land reclamation first began.

Irawan of PT Cipta Guna said the company could understand why the residents were upset, but regretted they resorted to vandalism.

"We could have talked and negotiated. They shouldn't have destroyed the project's equipment," he said.

Residents gathered together at around 7 a.m. and headed to the project site where they vandalized the heavy equipment. They did not stop until dozens of police and military personnel came to disperse them. (har/14)