Bekasi – Tens of street vendors at the new Podok Gede market here run amok damaging an office in the complex.

The incident occurred Saturday at about 10:30 a.m. when officers tried to relocate them from Jalan Inkopau, besides the market complex, to the front of it. Some vendors felt dissatisfied, though a discussion about the relocation that has been held earlier by traders [formal] and vendors [informal].

The vendors came to the market office to seek for Edi Supriadi, the market unit leader. He was not in the office.

Supriadi is not here. But, I am a chief of the sub market retribution unit, said Abdur-razak as quoted by Pos Kota.

He said the vendors suddenly stormed and shattered the glass of office door after the reply. Afraid to become a victim, he ran to the second floor with two others, including a woman.

The skirmish was quieted after the police, military and market security guards appeared at the site. It was uncertain if anyone was detained in the incident.

Abdurrazak did not know whether the assault was motivated by dissatisfaction or other reasons.

I do not think it was because the vendors disagreed with the relocation, he added.

Unsatisfied

The vendors said they destroyed the market office was due to their dissatisfaction with relocation. We fear that we will lose customers, one of the vendors said.

Two days ago, the Bekasi regional government failed to relocate the vendors. To avoid any incident, local authorities let the vendors discussing among themselves to make a decision, said Anton Zakaria, an official of the regional government.

He said he still did not understand the reason of the destruction.

Officers were still investigating if there was a third party involved in the case, Zakaria said.