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Bukit Duri residents pack their bags as eviction looms
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A worker dismantles a house in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta. The city administration plans to demolish houses on about 80 plots of land along the Ciliwung River to allow the river to be widened. The graffiti on the walls of the house reads: aWill the fifth principle of Pancasila ever prevail?a and âDâ you think we âre cats who can just be shooed away?â The fifth principle of the stateâs philosophical foundation is social justice for all. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
W
ith eviction just around the corner, and knowing that they can do little to stop it, most residents of Bukit Duri in South Jakarta have packed their belongings and accepted the city’s offer to be relocated to a low-cost apartment complex (rusunawa).
The Tebet district office recorded that as of Thursday, as many as 305 out of 440 households, whose houses are marked for demolition, had voluntarily dismantled their houses and registered for an apartment at the Rawa Bebek Rusunawa in East Jakarta.
“As more people have left their houses, we plan to start the demolition of empty houses on Tuesday,” district head Mahludin said on Thursday.
To make way for the Ciliwung River flood mitigation program, the city administration is set to relocate households who live on the riverbank and move them to the Rawa Bebek Rusunawa.
The plan, however, has faced resistance from some local residents and human rights group who
believe that moving the locals to a vertical housing complex 14 kilometers from their old neighborhood will only reduce their standard of living.
The residents and the rights group have also criticized the government for not giving the residents a say in the eviction and relocation process even though they are ones who are most affected.
Despite various criticisms, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has defended his policy, saying the houses disrupt the river restoration project aimed at reducing floods in the capital.
Ahok said he would ignore the objections of NGO activists until they presented a viable alternative to his plan.
“They can protest if they want, but give me another solution,” the governor said on Saturday.
Out of desperation, the residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against the plan with the Jakarta District Court. However, the ongoing legal process does not seem to bother the city administration. The administration recently issued a second warning letter, urging the residents to leave their houses.
As the eviction appears unavoidable, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has demanded that it be carried out with as few violations as possible, referring to earlier evictions that were tarnished by clashes between residents and officials and the military.
Despite the questionable legality of military involvement, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) recorded that the military took part in 65 out of the 113 evictions carried out by the administration in 2015.
In August, an eviction in Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta, made headlines when a clash broke out. Some residents were injured in the clash.
On Sept. 1, dozens of residents of Rawajati, Pancoran, South Jakarta, clashed with military personnel while trying to defend their homes from demolition. The residents and the military personnel pushed and jostled one other.
Komnas HAM commissioner Hafid Abbas said the involvement of the military was unnecessary as the evictees “were not enemies of the state and should not be treated as such”.
“I hope with the Bukit Duri eviction the city administration will only deploy Satpol PP [Public Order Agency] officers instead of asking for assistance from the military or the police,” he said.
The Jakarta Military District Command (Kodam Jaya) has denied allegations that it had broken the law by getting involved in the evictions, saying that all it had done was to “protect the residents from violent encounters with the officials”.
“Our presence was asked for by the city administration and we were there only as backup, nothing else,” Kodam Jaya claimed.
