Eviction victims block off road

Eviction victims block off road

TANGERANG: Ten families from Karang Anyar village in Benda
district, Tangerang municipality, blocked off Jl. Pembangunan III
-- one of the roads that leads to Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport from Jl. Daan Mogot -- for eight hours on Monday.

The families sat in the middle of the street, which reopened
at 11 a.m. after local officials, police and representatives of
PT Angkasa Pura (PT AP), which manages the airport, negotiated
with the demonstrators.

The families blocked off the road because they had heard that
PT AP planned to evict them from their land, which measure about
1,000 square meters in total.

Yani, one of the demonstrators, said the families had been
given the land in the early 1990s after they had been moved by
the local administration to make way for the construction of Jl.
Pembangunan III.

"We demand the administration give us ownership documents for
the land so that we can live here safely," H. Nisin, a
demonstrator, said.

PT AP spokesman Enking Baihaki insisted the land belonged to
the company and that the families would have to move if the
company required the land.

However, the municipal administration secretary, Wahidin
Halim, said the families were in the right and their rights must
be protected.

"We will gather evidence for the families' ownership documents
to the land, and we will also investigate why PT AP claimed the
land," he said.--JP