Many social organizations and individuals in Surabaya demand the city administration find more humane methods of conducting evictions to avoid further violence, which many people, mostly marginal people, have suffered.
"The municipality has to change its methods of evicting people, such as those who live along riverbanks and those who sell their products along the roadside.
Better communication between them will lead officials to find better way to solve the social problems, which are a common challenge in big cities like Surabaya," said Hermawan Some from the Urban Poor Linkage (Uplink) Surabaya, Tuesday.
Some said the municipality needed to approach the residents and communicate with them to solve the urban problems. He was sure that the people would be open to discussing fair solutions offered by officials.
The demands were vehement, as a girl died from burns Monday, after the public order agency's personnel conducted an eviction of mobile street vendors (PKLs) at Jl Raya Boulevard, in front of the WTC Shopping Center last week.
Siti Khoiyaroh, 4, the child of a bakso (meatball) seller Mat Naki and Munaroh alias Sumariyah, died a week after receiving severe burns all over her body.
The doctor's team from Dr. Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya disclosed that Siti died from multiple organ failure.
Siti was injured when a cooking pot full of boiling water fell onto her. The incident happened when the Surabaya Public Order Agency officers were performing a sweep of street vendors last Monday.
As a result of the incident, a public order officer WD, was named a suspect in the case that has attracted a public outcry in the city.
WD was believed to have confronted Munaroh during the eviction, which caused Munaroh's cart to overturn. The cooking pot full of boiling water toppled over and poured over Siti, who was sitting by the cart. Munaroh ran away to avoid the sweep.
The incident raised concerns and comments from residents. The residents deplored the officers for frequently applying inhumane methods to evict the street vendors.
People living along Kalimas riverbanks and activists from the Indonesian Poor People Alliance (SRMI) Surabaya staged separate protests Tuesday against the city administration, as its agency had caused the girl's death.
They demanded the agency and the administration take responsibility for the incident by allocating funds for the victim's family. They also demanded the administration annul regional regulations believed to harass poor people, like Bylaw No. 9/2007 and Bylaw No. 17/2003.
On the same day, people living along the Kalimas riverbanks, who had been evicted from their houses, filed a summons at the Surabaya district court against the Surabaya mayor and the head of the public order agency. The officials were believed to have broken some bylaws.
The Surabaya Legal Aid Foundation, one of organizations that support the people, disclosed that the administration had neglected people's rights to affordable living conditions in the city.
JP/Agnes S Jayakarna
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