[sustran] FW: UPC Jakarta (becak campaigners) attacked by militia

Paul Barter geobpa at nus.edu.sg
Thu Apr 4 10:09:33 JST 2002


Please see below.  This is only peripherally a transport item, in that the
victims of the attacks include one of the groups that is campaigning on and
organising with pedicab drivers in Jakarta. UPC and Wardah Hafidz and their
efforts have been discussed (and sometimes criticised) here several times in
recent years. Even if critical of their tactics I think we would all agree
that no-one deserves to be assaulted and threatened by thugs over our
political activity. 

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: hyowoo na [mailto:locoa2000 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, 4 April 2002 3:39 AM
To: ...
Subject: Urgent - Attacked the Urban poor again [LOCOA]


Dear Friends, 

Below is a report by Wardah Hafidz. This is very
alarming and all who work for human rights (economic,
social, political, civil and cultural) should do
something before the armed militias and their military
backers run wild again as what happened in East Timor

Hyo Woo NA

 More information and Picture ; Http://www.locoa.net

-------------------
Around 400 men from a group called Forum Betawi Rempug
(United Betawi Forum), a Jakarta  militia, armed with
dagger, stone and wood attacked the urban poor group
in front of the office of the National Commission of
Human Rights in Jakarta last Thursday, 28 March 2002.
Around 50 people from the urban poor group, women,
children, and men, were injured, 20 of which injured
badly. Around 5 children from age 5 - 12 and many
women were  bleeding on their heads, trampled on, hit
by stones, and stabbed. One becak driver got 16
stiches on his head, another one had to undergo a
surgery from having blood clot on the back of his
head. A lawyer of LBH APIK was injured on her head and
was bleeding very badly. Six of the UPC activists were
injured. Wardah Hafidz was choked and thrown to the
ground, was about to be hit by a piece of wood when a
becak driver saved her and he was hit twice instead.
The sound system and get set that belong to the upc, a
van, and the glass windows of the Commission office
shattered. Many women lost their jewelry, wallet and
money. 

Around 400 hundred urban poor people, men, women and
children, organised a peaceful dialog with the
National Commission on Human Rights, National
Commission on Women's Rights and National Commission
on Children Rights on that day. The purpose of the
dialog was to find ways to urge the Jakarta government
to respect the court decision that they have to stop
the violence against the urban poor of Jakarta. When
the dialog was over and they were about to leave, the
militia arrived in 9 minibuses, three open trucks and
one van. They shouted that they looked for Wardah
Hafidz, and immediately after assaulted the urban poor
group. The group is the same militia group that
attacked the UPC demonstration last 13 March 2002. 

Please mobilize support and protest. I am afraid this
is, again, a part of the big scenario of the military
to cause riots in Jakarta, to prevent the urban poor
from being strongly organised and to use upc and the
urban poor as the shooting targets. Please help find
ways to prevent this from happening. 

In solidarity,                    

Wardah Hafidz



=====
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 Tel: (632) 925-8432,426-4118      Fax :(632) 426-4132
 E-mail: locoa2000 at yahoo.com       http://www.locoa.net



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