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Brief narrative |
Eviction: Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta
The community at Kampung Rawadas, Pondok Kopi, in East Jakarta was established in 1986 on an area of swampland that the initial groups of residents filled in and reclaimed. In 2001, the community contacted the National Land Agency to contest claims being made by a local government agency in charge of graveyards which asserted that it had rights over the land.
Nonetheless, on the morning of 29 October 2001, before the National Land Agency could rule on the various competing claims of ownership on the land, some 400 public order officials, 300 police, one hundred thugs, and a handful of military forces and representatives from local government all arrived at the village. According to witnesses, the security forces entered the village using teargas, firearms, and batons sticks. Using ropes and bulldozers, the government forces destroyed approximately 400 houses, home to around 1,600 people. Twenty-one residents were injured.
Evicted residents were given the option of finding their own alternative location to live and receiving construction materials from the government, or moving to land provided by the government outside of Jakarta, for which they would have to pay Rp. 1.3 million (US$127)174 in advance payments, and Rp. 170,000 (US$17) per month in rent.175 Much of the community, however, simply remained on the land. As there has been no subsequent use of the land by the government, the community has rebuilt their village in the exact same place, calling into question the legitimacy and purpose of the original eviction. As Agus Adil, a member of the community told Human Rights Watch: "Until now, the land hasn`t been used for anything else, so for what reason were we evicted? I`m wondering why the government is making the community here suffer? If [the land was used by the government] then we would feel less upset, but until now there is nobody using the land."
Source HRW: Condemned Communities: Forced Evictions in Jakarta |
