Sons and daughters of a lesser god

Fabio Scarpello, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Approaching Teluk Gong, along the West Flood Canal in North Jakarta, an apocalyptic vision of utter poverty and misery strikes you.

Resembling a war zone, makeshift tents, burnt huts and litter stare you in the face. Garbage is everywhere and rats rein supreme where children play. Conditions are conducive to an epidemic, and only the frequent visits of volunteer doctors have prevented the situation from deteriorating. But these people are not at war.

Pak Ijar invites us into his tent.

"Why is our government treating us like animals?" he asks.

His is one of the 444 families still living in the area. In October 2001 there were over 8,000. Since then 12 "visits" by the police and public order officials -- enforcing eviction orders -- have reduced the number drastically. The last visit was on June 24, the next feared not too far away. Every time harassment and beatings have occurred, and on six occasions houses were burned down.

All these people's earthly possessions have evaporated with the smoke, leaving a deep feeling of powerlessness, mixed with anger and frustration.

"I am still living here because I hope that there will be justice for the people of this country. My children are still going to school and I want them to have a better future, besides I have no money to go anywhere else," Ijar said.

The tent he shares with his wife and three children is only two meters by three meters in size. Even the bare essentials are missing but he still fears the worst: They will come back and destroy what they find.

"Sometimes they throw the bed in the river, sometimes other things. There is no end, we are used to it," Ijar said.

These people are considered squatters -- this is their crime. Legally they are not resident in Jakarta but the maze of today's bureaucracy leaves them little room in which to maneuver.

To obtain residency you need an ID card, and hardly any of them has one. To get an ID card you need residency. It is a classic catch-22 situation.

Nasaruddin is bewildered. He has been living here for the longest period of his life.

"I was the first here. I arrived 30 years ago when the area was a forest. I used to plant vegetables and sell them, managing -- at that time -- to make a decent living. I have five children; they were all born here. This is home -- where am I meant to go?"

Shifting them to their village of origin would give Jakarta a face-lift but hardly seems the solution to the problem.

Ismu Andoro, from the non-governmental organization Humanitarian Volunteer Team, has been living with these people for the past nine months. He shared their houses and now shares their fate.

First he praises the community and the way it has rallied to help the squatters. Everybody has been very supportive, he says -- food and clothes are regularly brought in. Volunteer doctors take turns in visiting these people and organizations such as Sanggar Ciliwung and Sanggar Akar have provided the children with alternative education.

"But obviously, this is not enough to compensate for the lack of 'proper' schooldays missed," he said.

Saying that, his body language changes drastically, betraying frustration: A viable solution would have been to grant temporary residency. This would have given the squatters a breathing space during which to apply for an ID. But this idea has been rejected.

"Now, with Komnas HAM (the National Commission on Human Rights), we are trying to form a commission to investigate the human rights abuses that have taken place and give the squatters' requests a voice." he said.

The requests are straightforward: compensation for the material losses incurred and a place at which to stay for a minimum of three years.

But the city government seems -- so far -- unmovable. Teluk Gong has been declared unavailable for dwellings, no alternative location has been provided and compensation has been fixed at Rp 500,000 per family.