Vendors to report to rights body over friend's death

JAKARTA (JP): A group of roadside vendors have threatened to report to the National Commission on Human Rights after one of their friends was allegedly killed in a raid by city public order officials.

Wanto, a vendor who usually operates on Jl. Latuharhari, Menteng, said he and several other vendors would seek help from the rights body over the death of a friend, Sutarjono, 28, whose body was found in a Central Jakarta canal yesterday.

Sutarjono's relatives would join the vendors to protest the officials' arbitrary action, Wanto said.

"We all will also sue the city public order office for the fatal negligence through the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute," he said.

Sutarjono plunged into a river after he and other traders were allegedly beaten by public order officials in a raid on Monday night in Menteng. Traders were not allowed to operate in the area.

Sutarjono's body was found yesterday by local residents in a canal in the Duri Pulo subdistrict, Gambir district, Central Jakarta.

Hariyati, one of the vendors raided, said the public order officials surrounded the vendors and prostitutes operating along the Kali Malang river bank on Jl. Latuharhari.

"They beat us with rattan sticks," Hariyati, who is also Sutarjono's aunt, said.

"Nine of us, including Sutarjono's wife, Sulastri, jumped in to the river. But we failed to help him," Hariyati said.

She said an officer beat Sutarjono's head before the victim plunged into the water. But Hariyati said she could not remember what the officer was like.

Sulastri, 25, suffered serious facial injuries Hariyati said.

City Police Spokesman Maj. Nyoman Suriasta said yesterday police would investigate Sutarjono's death.

Five prostitutes were nabbed in the raid and sent to a temporary home in Kedoya, West Jakarta, run by the city social services agency.

Traders said city public officials overacted in most raids. They said the officers often raped the street prostitutes they nabbed.

Wanto said he and his friends paid Rp 15,000 (US$6.38) a day to an officer in the Menteng district office.

He said every time they were caught they paid between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000 to be freed.

A lawyer at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Dwiyanto Prihartono, said the public order officials' alleged actions "breached their authority."

Public order officials have investigative powers like police.

Their have the power to arrest suspects and immediately take them to the police. They can confiscate items if they have a court order.

"However, so far public order officials want instant results," Dwiyanto said.

He said this was worsened by cultural factors because those wearing uniforms have a feeling of authority and the public's fear of those wearing uniforms.

"Beating people, messing and turning over (traders' carts, goods) becomes the norm. Such actions go unprotected until something extreme happens like a death or rape," he said.

In January the city public order office faced charges that one of its officials was involved in the rape of a woman picked up in a raid.

The case was closed after the suspected rapist married the victim. (jun/anr)