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