Tebet fire victims still oppose apartment plan

JAKARTA (JP): West Tebet fire victims have continued to rebuild on their premises, turning deaf ears to the municipality's plan to build low-cost apartments for them.

"We have held deliberations with them five times, but they refuse to understand (the plan)," Rustam Effendy, assistant to the South Jakarta mayor in charge of administrative affairs, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Sultom, one of the fire victims, insisted there has been only one meeting between the fire victims and the municipality, which was held four days after the fire.

"If anything, it was carried out in such a way that was against the Pancasila ideology. We were told to listen to the briefing on the apartment plan. There was no discussion at all. We never had a chance to express our wishes," he said.

A fire that lasted for three hours burned 230 houses in a slum area in the West Tebet subdistrict on May 11, leaving more than 1,000 people homeless.

The city administration immediately announced its plan to build three blocks of low-cost apartments for the fire victims, which they could pay for in installments.

Yesterday, mayoralty officials, accompanied by dozens of police officers and military members, began measuring the plots at the fire site despite protests from the victims.

A protest letter signed by representatives of the fire victims -- copies of which had been circulated among them -- was sent to the governor.

"It is of no use for them to oppose the plan since it must go on. If they oppose it, they will lose the right to live in the apartments," said Rustam.

Rustam said the mayoralty still lacks detailed plans on the apartments such as the amount of the installment and when the apartments will be built.

"It has yet to decide when the fire victims will receive the so-called housing rent allowance," he said.

The housing rent allowance is the fund the mayoralty has promised to give to each fire victim to enable them to rent houses elsewhere pending the completion of the apartments.

The officials said the allowance could be around Rp 500,000 (US$232) per year per family.

Some fire victims, convinced that the city administration will not waver in its apartment plan, have started to dismantle their makeshift houses in fear that the municipal guards will pull them down with their valuable parts.

"This way we can at least save the windows and the door frames," said Yuliana, who owned the "Yulia" beauty salon.

Yuliana, who claimed to have all her possessions destroyed by the fire, is now staying in the nearby mosque along with other victims.

"We don't know where to go. We have nothing left," she said. (jsk)