Sutiyoso to continue evictions

JAKARTA: City Governor Sutiyoso refused on Wednesday to sign a moratorium on the forcible eviction of poor people despite the public outcry and criticism from the National Commission on Human Rights that saw it as against human rights.

"If the (new) agreement is designed to stop evictions, then I cannot sign it," Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall.

The National Commission on Human Rights, the National Commission for Children's Protection and the National Commission for Women's Protection, jointly lodged a protest against the administration's continued evictions of poor urban people.

"We call on the administration to stop the evictions as they are against people's rights to shelter," said Seto Mulyadi, a child protection activist.

In the latest report on Monday, the authorities bulldozed some 600 shacks belonging to more than 3,000 illegal squatters along the West Flood Canal in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, leaving them, mostly children, without a home.

According to data released by the Antieviction Network (Jaringan Anti-Penggusuran), the authorities have carried out 45 evictions at a total of 77.45 hectares of land across the capital. The evictions made 6,774 families, or 34,514 people, homeless.

The authorities' lack of consistency in upholding the city's public order is often blamed as the main cause of widespread illegal squatting in several parts of the capital.

"The administration should continue monitoring spots such as river banks and land beneath flyovers, to prevent illegal squatters from occupying those places," Maringan Pangaribuan, a councillor said earlier. --JP