Violence marks forced eviction in Cengkareng

Violence marks forced eviction in Cengkareng

Bambang Nurbianto and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

At least 25 people were injured in violent clashes on Wednesday
between police and public order officers and residents of Kampung
Baru, Cengkareng Timur subdistrict, West Jakarta.

The violence occurred when residents resisted attempts by the
officers to evict them for their houses, which stand on land
belonging to state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas.

Some 3,000 police and public order officers were deployed to
protect the workers sent in to bulldoze the houses.

The residents threw stones at officers, who picked up the
stones and hurled them back at the residents.

Police officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the
crowd, and used water canons to break up the protest.

Some 23 residents and two officers who were injured during the
violence were treated at the nearby Cengkareng Hospital.

The head of the City Public Order Agency, Soebagyo, defended
the actions of his officers, saying they were defending
themselves from the residents.

Soebagyo said his agency was merely enforcing the law by
evicting the residents, who were illegally occupying the land.

Didin Sutadi, the head of Perum Perumnas, said the problem
began in 1998 when the West Jakarta mayoralty allowed unemployed
people to farm on the neglected 55-hectare plot of land belonging
to Perum Perumnas. These farmers, Didin said, eventually built
houses and sold the land to other residents.

However, Ahmad, a resident of Kampung Baru, told The Jakarta
Post they had a legal right to the land, and had asked the
mayoralty and the City Council to delay the eviction.

He said residents bought the land from three heirs of the
original owner of the land, M. Yasin, beginning in 1998. The
residents received copies of the land titles, which were
supposedly certified by the National Land Agency in 2002.

"We need more time to obtain the original documents so we can
show the mayoralty and the management of state-run development
company Perum Perumnas Bumi Cengkareng Indah that the land is
ours," Ahmad, a street vendor, said.

He said all of the residents had valid Jakarta IDs and the
area itself had been integrated into the Cengkareng Timur
subdistrict.

The clash on Wednesday follows a similar incident when
security officers evicted some 10,000 residents of Jembatan Besi,
Tambora, West Jakarta, from a plot of land owned by PT Cakra Wira
Bumi Mandala.

Commenting on the evictions, Jakarta Residents Forum chairman
Azas Tigor Nainggolan slammed the police and the administration
for causing suffering to thousands of people, including women and
children.

Tigor demanded the National Commission on Human Rights
investigate the evictions, which he said violated international
conventions on economic, social and cultural rights.

Governor Sutiyoso said his administration would continue to
evict people living illegally on land that was not theirs as part
of the effort to maintain security and public order.

The governor said these squatters were not Jakarta residents,
therefore they should be given two choices: return to their
hometowns or join the transmigration program.

He said the central government should be responsible for
resolving this problem.

"This problem is actually the affair of the central government
because they are not Jakarta residents. They are not my people,"
he said.