Green Garden embroiled in bitter land dispute<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): PT Green Garden, one of the city's most
\nprominent developers, is embroiled in a bitter land dispute with
\nfarmers in the Rorotan subdistrict of North Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The farmers vow to stay until the developer pays them more
\ncompensation but the developer insists that they are illegally
\noccupying four hectares of land it appropriated in the early
\n1980s.<\/p>\n
The company is seeking to have the peasants removed to make
\nway for the construction of an upmarket housing complex.<\/p>\n
Both PT Green Garden and the farmers said yesterday they would
\ncall in the authorities to help settle the 10-month-old dispute,
\nwhich has been marked by attacks on the company's office building
\nin Rorotan.<\/p>\n
\"We'll have them (the farmers) get out of the site because
\nit's our land ... we have the legal documents,\" Hengky, president
\nof PT Green Garden, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.<\/p>\n
Cathy Lengkong, chairwoman of the Indonesian Scavengers
\nAssociation who said she was a representative of the farmers,
\nsaid the developer had refused to pay appropriate compensation.<\/p>\n
\"The company only wants to pay Rp 1 million (US$447) to all of
\nthe 60 farmers and offer them free transportation to their home
\ntowns,\" she told reporters separately early yesterday.<\/p>\n
Cathy, a former artist, said that the farmers sought no more
\nthan Rp 100,000 for each square meter of the land.<\/p>\n
The farmers have lived on and tilled the land since 1982, she
\nsaid. She accused the developer of forcing poor people to leave
\nwithout proper compensation.<\/p>\n
Hengky, for his part, said that Cathy was using the farmers
\nfor her own personal ends. \"She has no business at all in the
\nmatter,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Hengky, his company obtained the title to the
\nland from the Jakarta city administration for the 43,000-square-
\nmeter plot of land in the early 1980s to build a housing complex
\nto be named Kompleks Green Garden.<\/p>\n
Hengky claimed that it was the company who brought in the 19
\nfarming families from Indramayu, West Java, in the early 1980s in
\norder that they could till and safeguard the land before the
\ncommencement of the construction project.<\/p>\n
According to Hengky, 17 of the 19 families left the area after
\nhe gave them Rp 50,000 each and free transport to their home
\ntown.<\/p>\n
The other two families had been preparing to leave on the next
\nday when, suddenly, Cathy came onto the scene and told them that
\nthey should demand more compensation for the land, he said.<\/p>\n
\"I don't know Cathy's real motive but we're not going to let
\nher stop our project and we'll ask the farmers to leave the site
\npeacefully or we'll force them to,\" he said. (bsr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/green-garden-embroiled-in-bitter-land-dispute-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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