Fire victims asked to resettle

R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Jayapura Mayor, Kambu, has instructed the residents of Bhayangkara subdistrict whose homes were destroyed by fire on Sept. 26 not to rebuild their homes in the same location, as it was vulnerable to landslide and overlapped with some of the town's green areas.

Kambu said on Wednesday that all the residents should leave the area, where they have been erecting tents and other temporary shelters since the fire, no later than Oct. 14.

"All the buildings destroyed by the fire were illegal and the house owners did not have legal documents for the land occupied by their former houses," he said, adding that this was the position of the regency administration.

The mayor said that the administration could not give any guarantees to the residents on whether they would be resettled or given another area to live in.

"It's their own business," he said, adding that the decision was fair.

Fire struck the densely populated Bhayangkara subdistrict in downtown Irian Jaya, capital of Jayapura, on Sept. 26, destroying hundreds of houses, and leaving homeless thousands of people belonging to 985 families. No fatalities were reported.

Police have yet to reveal the cause of the fire, but an eyewitness had earlier said that the fire originated from an exploding oil stove belonging to a local named Bondan.

Meanwhile, the leader of Besar Kayu Pulau tribes Gaspar Sibi, who claimed to have inherited the Bhayangkara land from his ancestors, said he supported the mayor's decision.

"Please, don't let any buildings stand on the land in the future," Gaspar said, adding that the land was part of a designated green area. "We just want to avoid possible disaster. Let the land be used for greenery."

The fire victims however demanded that the local administration help them find a new location. "Most of us prefer staying here to going elsewhere. We have no place to go. It's not easy to find vacant land in Jayapura."