Vendors to report to rights body over friend's death

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)