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Most evictions carried out without notice: Study
Jakarta Post - December 24, 2014
Fakta head Azas Tigor Nainggolan, during the presentation of the research over the weekend, said in those 19 evictions, the city administration did not carry out preparation such as notifying residents or making sure they would be relocated to adequate housing.
"People always picture eviction as a stressful and unfair process because that is what happens in most cases," Azas told reporters.
He added, for example, that the Pinus Elok low-cost apartment block in Cakung, East Jakarta, which was provided for squatters from the Ria Rio Reservoir area, was currently in poor condition with leaky roofs and murky water.
Contacted separately, Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) public defender Pratiwi Febry said that evictions were very prone to human rights violations and, therefore, the city administration must be able to make sure that evictions were conducted in a humane fashion.
"The administration must understand that evictions should not reduce the quality of life of the victims," Pratiwi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
She added that before the squatters were evicted from their houses, they should receive notification, appropriate compensation and sufficient information about relocation plans.
"Moving people is not the same thing as moving things; people should know their destination and learn how to adapt there. They will need money and information," Pratiwi said.
Meanwhile, urban analyst Nirwono Yoga said during the research presentation that most of the time the city administration used green-space improvement as its reason for forced evictions, while in fact it had yet to have any clear plan for green spaces.
"They even take the funds for evictions from the urban planning budget because there has yet to be any clear regulation about that," Yoga said.
Yoga estimated that the city would continue the eviction trend in the next two years before cooling down in 2017, when Jakartans are set to elect their next governor.
Fakta's research also found that the Jakarta administration had displaced 13,852 people from 3,751 families through forced evictions in 2014.
Based on the research, most of the evicted families – almost 500 – came from the Sunter River area in North Jakarta, followed by Pejagalan in North Jakarta and East Tebet in South Jakarta with more than 200 families.
Azas added that the research also suggested that in 2014 there were 2,149 street vendors evicted from 17 locations.
Most of the street vendors were evicted from Mangga Besar Station in Central Jakarta, with 683 vendors, Kali Baru Jatinegara in East Jakarta with 300 vendors and Kebayoran Lama in South Jakarta with 200 vendors.
Azas said further that the high number of evictions proved that the capital city did not stand on the side of marginalized people. "This city was designed for the rich and middle-class citizens, while the poor must step away," Azas said.
Fakta recommended in its findings that the city administration under Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama be friendlier to the underprivileged in the future and issue a new regulation on relocations as soon as possible. "The public must also be involved in the city's urban planning," Azas said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/12/24/most-evictions-carried-out-without-notice-study.html.
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