RED CROSS SENDS 69 BLOOD POUCHES TO KOJA HOSPITAL

Jakarta, April 16 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) has sent 69 blood pouches to Koja General Hospital in North Jakarta following Wednesday's riot which left three people dead and 132 others injured.

"The PMI has donated 69 blood pounces to the Koja General Hospital to help those who were injured and lost much blood in the incident," the chairman of the PMI's North Jakarta branch, Dasril Rangkuti, said in a press statement on Friday.

Rangkuti said personnel of the PMI's branch continued to stand by in the area where hundreds of people lived in the compound of the tomb of respected Muslim scholar Habib Hasan bin Muhammad Al Hadad, more popularly known as "Mbah Priok".

He further said two PMI ambulances damaged in the clash between public order officers and residents had been pulled out from the scene and replaced with other ambulances.
The clash broke out on Wednesday morning when about a thousand public order officers marched to the graveyard complex built on land owned by port company PT Pelindo II where Mbah Priok's tomb is located.

According to the Jakarta city government, the public order guards were mobilized to the complex to demolish illegal buildings erected within the complex.

The dead victims were identified as M. Tajudin, W. Soepono and Israel Jaya, all of them public order officers. The injured consist of 10 police officers, 69 public order officers, and 55 civilians.

Besides human victims, 46 vehicles belonging to public order officers and the police had been burned in the riot.

The Jakarta metropolitan police on Thursday deployed 600 personnel to secure Koja area in North Jakarta.

Also on Thursday, Indonesian military (TNI) chief Gen Djoko Santoso said the TNI had prepared five companies of troops to help police prevent the clash from spreading.

Djoko said the TNI personnel would particularly safeguard a number of vital facilities around the scene of the conflict.