Thousands protest public order raids

Thousands protest public order raids

JAKARTA (JP): More than 3,000 disadvantaged people, mostly
street singers and pedicab drivers, rallied in front of City Hall
on Thursday, protesting the public order raids mounted against
them by the city administration.

Arriving in their pedicabs, the protesters, grouped under the
umbrella of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), demanded that the
administration close down the Kedoya "rehabilitation" center in
West Jakarta where street workers netted during public order
raids are detained.

Using a sound system mounted on the bed of an open truck, the
protesters also demanded the closure of the Jakarta Public Order
Office's store in Cakung, North Jakarta, where pedicabs and
merchandise confiscated during public order raids are kept.

"The Kedoya prison and the Cakung store are an insult to
humanity. The present administration is more ruthless than the
Dutch colonial administration," the group's coordinator Edy Saedy
said.

The group earlier in the day visited the Kedoya center in an
effort to free those of their comrades being held there, but
failed to do so as the center was tightly guarded.

They then moved to the Cakung warehouse, where they pulled
down the warehouse's name board.

The protesters were almost involved in a clash with several
Betawi (native Jakarta) people who were allegedly hired by the
administration to confront them.

City Public Order Office chief Firman Hutajulu denied that his
office had engineered a confrontation between the Betawi people
and the protesters.

Hundreds of civilian police auxiliaries (Banpol) and police
officers managed to calm down the protesters.

Separately, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso promised on Thursday to
continue public order raids against street traders and pedicab
drivers.

"Pedicabs must disappear from Jakarta," Sutiyoso told the
city's five mayors, and the heads of the city's 65 districts and
265 subdistricts at City Hall. (jun)