Students cancel protest at Benhil fire site

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty University of Indonesia (UI) students canceled their plans to protest at the fire site in Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta, after hearing a comprehensive explanation by Central Jakarta's deputy mayor yesterday.

"I believe that you all have good intentions, but staging a protest here will provoke a new problem. The people will be confused and there is also a possibility that certain quarters will exploit it," Deputy Mayor Mora Tua Simamora told the students at the site.

The students of the most prestigious university in the country arrived at the site at around 11 a.m led by chairman of UI Student Senate, Zulkieflimansyah.

Their presence caused the Bendungan Hilir (Benhil) subdistrict administration to deploy more than 50 policemen and dozens of other security officers at the site of recent clashes between squatters and demolition teams.

Mora then invited Zulkfieflimansyah and the other students to the subdistrict office to discuss the matter.

During the talk, Zulkifliemansyah read the official statement of the UI Student Senate, which was followed by the deputy mayor's explanation about the present situation and the historical background of the Benhil area.

In the statement the students demanded that the city administration postpone the construction of the low-cost apartments there until the dispute over the land compensation rate is settled.

Responding to the students' appeal, Mora said that the municipal authorities had never intentionally used force in the demolition process.

He said that the target of what was described by the media as "dawn attack", an incident in which anti-riot officers used tear gas and rattan sticks to expel squatters from the 1.5-hectare slum area on the morning of Oct. 7, was not the residents.

He said that the security officers were ordered to blockade the slum area at dawn because they were informed that some outsiders from the Petamburan and Pejompongan Indah areas were going to join the slum inhabitants to resist the demolition process.

"The move was aimed at preventing those people from joining the residents there in their efforts to resist the demolition process. But because the officers in charge were greeted by thousands of flying stones, they were forced to use the tear gas," Mora said.

Underway

The deputy mayor also told the students that the sooner the apartment construction began the better it would be since this would reduce the number of slum areas in the city.

He said the slum inhabitants will be given first priority to purchase the low-cost apartments.

Mora said that the city rejected the squatters's demand that the administration pay them a sum of between Rp 1 million (US$458) and Rp 5 million for land compensation not only because the city do not have the money but also because the land is state property.

Meanwhile, Central Jakarta Mayor Abdul Kahfi told Antara news agency during his visit to Benhil yesterday morning that the construction process of the low-cost apartment is already underway.

"The construction cost of the 10-story apartment buildings, which will have a total of 600 units is Rp 23 billion," he said.

The mayor said the city will subsidize around 50 percent of the price of each apartment for every inhabitant of the Benhil slum area.

The mayor said that the city has designed an installment payment plan of 20 years for the residents.

Mora said that the recent fire was not the first to sweep the area.

"A big fire razed the area in the early 1970s. At that time the city planned to use the site as a plant nursery. The municipal administration offered the slum inhabitants some houses in Kalideres area, West Jakarta, but they refused them. They rebuilt another slum instead," he said.

The city administration has repeatedly warned the residents not to rebuild houses in the 1.5-hectare area, which was ravaged by fire on Sept. 9, because the city will construct low-cost apartments for them. (mas)