Evicted residents object to apartment project

Residents in South Rawasari, Central Jakarta, who were evicted from their homes to make way for the construction of an apartment building, staged a protest Sunday.

Thirty residents who were evicted three years ago accused the city administration of lying to them, saying they were told they were being evicted because the area was being converted into an open green space.

Protesters sewed their mouths shut and held a hunger strike at the entrance to the apartment construction site. Some lay inside coffins carrying the slogan “We sew our mouths to death”.

“Three months after we were evicted, officials from the city held a ceremony to plant trees, but one year later they returned and uprooted all the young trees so construction on this apartment building could start,” one of the protesters, Seno Budiarto, was quoted as saying by news portal detik.com.

The protesters demanded that either their land be returned or the developer compensate them. — JP