Eviction-threat Kampung Baru residents on alert

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Dozens of residents, mostly youths, of Kampung Baru, Cengkareng Timur subdistrict in West Jakarta, were seen sitting around the neighborhood on Thursday, claiming they were guarding their homes from "sudden attack".

Having received a final warning from the West Jakarta Mayoralty on Aug. 29 to vacate the 16-hectare plot of land within three days, it is just a matter of time before the public order officers move in.

"The situation is safe now, but we have to stay alert. The other day, a man, who many of us know is a police intelligence officer, came by as a guest but asked too many question on the ownership of the land," said Ahmad, one of the residents.

Ahmad, who is also one of the neighborhood chiefs in the area, told The Jakarta Post that they had legal rights to the property and therefore had asked the mayor as well as the city council to delay the eviction.

He said the residents bought the land from the three heirs of the previous land owner, M. Yasin, in 1998, who gave them the copies of the land title, which was said to have been certified by the National Land Agency in 2002.

"We need more time to obtain the original documents so we can show the mayoralty and the management of the state-run developer Perum Perumnas Bumi Cengkareng Indah that the land is ours," Ahmad, a street vendor, said.

He said the residents all had Jakarta IDs and the area itself had been integrated as part of the subdistrict.

According to Didin Sutadi, head of Perum Perumnas, the problem originated from a policy of the mayoralty in 1998, which allowed unemployed residents to manage the neglected 55-hectare plot of land belonging to Perum Perumnas for farming, but later the farmers built houses and sold the land to other residents.

Besides the 55-hectares of land, which stretches from Pedongkelan to Tegal Alur and now has more than 1,000 houses, illegal occupants had also claimed another 40-hectares of land belonging to Perum Perumnas, Didin said, as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

"Perum Perumnas practically only has the remaining 45-hectare land for development," he said on Monday.

Ahmad, however, insisted that the 16-hectare plot did not belong to Perum Perumnas.

"I don't get it. At first, the subdistrict chief said the company offered us Rp 200,000 (about US$23) for each square meter of our land. While we were still considering the price, the mayoralty issued the warning orders to vacate the land," he said.