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ozens of delman (traditional horse-drawn buggy) operators staged a protest in front of City Hall on Wednesday, demanding the officials remove a ban forbidding them from operating inside the National Monument (Monas) park.

"I have stayed at home and stopped operating my buggy for two years since the ban was enacted.

"We want to be allowed to work inside the park again," said former delman driver Matsani, 25.

The officials' promise to relocate them to Ancol in North Jakarta or to Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII) in East Jakarta was just a lie because it had never been done, Matsani said.

The delman drivers staged a number of similar protests last year because they felt that their income had dropped sharply after they were prohibited from operating inside Monas park.

Central Jakarta Mayor Sylviana Murni said she had never promised to secure a new place for delman drivers to operate within Ancol or TMII.

She said her office could not lift the ban inside Monas park because it was difficult to clean up the horse's feces from the park's stone blocks.

The municipality first issued a ban on delman drivers in June 2007 when Muhayat was mayor, saying the horses' urine produced a strong odor of ammonia, while their manure made a mess of the park grounds.

At that time, delman were still allowed to operate inside the park on weekends. One year later, however, the administration decided to further restrict delman, preventing them from entering the park entirely.

In March this year, Central Jakarta administration announced that the buggies would be relocated to Ancol and TMII sites. Sylviana agreed that delman should be preserved as part of Betawi culture, but said they did not necessarily need to be preserved at Monas.

"They can look for places that are unpaved - not with stone blocks like at Monas," Sylviana said, adding that she was committed to the preservation of delman by employing them in municipal events, including the current celebrations in which Central Jakarta won the Adipura national cleanliness award.

Iswandi, a secretary-general of the Betawi Delman Struggle Association, said there were around 250 buggies across the city, 90 of which were operating around the Monas perimeter.