Vendors lie on road to stop eviction

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Some 1.000 traders and street vendors prevented security personnel from bulldozing their kiosks in the traditional Antri market in Cimahi, Bandung, West Java on Tuesday.

The Cimahi administration plans to clear the land to build a shopping center.

The protesters arrived at the 8,000-square meter market at 7 a.m. hoping to thwart the 200 public order officers deployed to evict them.

The situation intensified at around 11:30 a.m., when a bulldozer and two fire trucks arrived at the location. Hundreds of wives of traders attempted to obstruct the bulldozer that started to demolish their kiosks.

"Allahu Akbar (God is Great)," they shouted while forming a line. Others lay on the ground in front of the bulldozer.

This forced the local authorities to delay the evictions to an undetermined date.

Bambang Ari Nugroho, head of the economic and cooperatives office at the Cimahi administration, said the evictions should have been carried on March 2, but were postponed due to protests.

The vendors had been ordered to relocate to the new Antri market, construction of which was completed on March 2, he said.

"We gave them until Tuesday to move, but they insisted on remaining at the old market," Bambang said.

He said that the local government could no longer tolerate the presence of traders in the area.

Bambang said the evictions had been planned a year ago after the local administration sold the land -- which is currently occupied by some 1,400 traders -- to investors.

The government allocated land for more than 1,500 kiosks in the new market, which is located some 500 meters away from Antri market, he added.

But, by the end of February, only 400 vendors were ready to move, and many others refused the offer as they said that buying a new kiosk was too expensive.

Ahmad Laeni, a 45-year-old food vendor, said that a kiosk of two square meters was priced at up to Rp 48 million (US$5,647). The purchaser could pay a down payment of Rp 8 million and installments of Rp 8,000 per day for 10 years, he explained.

"We are low-income vendors. How can we come up with millions of rupiah?" he said.

Ahmad demanded that the local administration reconsider its eviction plans, saying that the planned shopping center would take business away from the vendors.

Many of the vendors expressed concern over what would happen if they refused to relocate, while others asked for three days to move.