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Bukit Duri residents to continue fight over 'unjust' evictions
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A worker uses a backhoe to topple a building during the eviction of residents from Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, on Wednesday. The evictions will make way for the Jakarta administration to continue flood mitigation efforts. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
B
ukit Duri residents will continue to fight against the Jakarta administration's "injustice" in evicting them from their houses on Wednesday, advocate Sandyawan Sumardi has said.
Sandyawan, founder of Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka, an organization that advocates for the residents, said his organization and the residents would sue the administration because they believed the evictions were illegal as legal processes were still underway.
“We have rights over the land and houses, and the class action is still in process. Why did the administration still continue this [eviction]?” he said, adding that 20 families had moved to a communal rental house in Poncol, Senen, Central Jakarta.
“We moved to Poncol to ease our transportation to the [Central Jakarta] district court,” he said, referring to the court where the residents’ class action is taking place.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said the administration could no longer postpone the evictions although the trial was still ongoing, because most of the residents had moved away from the area. As reported earlier, 313 families previously packed their bags and moved to the Rawa Bebek low-cost rental apartment complex.
“The Ciliwung River normalization program is a project under the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, and it uses the 2016 state budget for the project. So the normalization has to start immediately,” Ahok said at City Hall.
The evictions were carried out by around 550 personnel from the Jakarta Police and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), who used three excavators to demolish the homes. (adt/bbn)
