Jakarta – The Jakarta administration has suffered Rp 465 million (US$32,302) in losses because of public facilities damaged during the riots on Wednesday, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan says.

Anies said the figure was the cost of repairing damaged public facilities. The biggest cost came from damaged roadside parks and road separators. Still, he said that the figure was relatively small.

"Value-wise Rp 465 million is big, but in terms of its proportion of the city's projects the figure is not big," he said on Friday as reported by kompas.com.

Anies explained that the repairs would be paid for with money allocated as maintenance funds every year in the city budget, which allowed the city to repair all the damage immediately.

He said he regretted that the protests turned violent on May 22 when protestors damaged some public facilities in the city such as road separators, greenery in the middle of the road and traffic signs.

He expressed hope that the police would arrest those responsible for instigating the riot.

"I regret the riot. It was a side effect [of the protests] that should have run peacefully. We all hope after the investigation is complete we would know the people who provoked the riot," he said.

The post-election riots started in the early hours of Wednesday in front of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) building in Jl. MH Thamrin and moved to other locations like Petamburan, Jatibaru and Slipi. (das)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/05/25/damage-from-jakarta-riots-costing-rp-465-million.html