Go ahead and sue me, says Bogor mayor

Go ahead and sue me, says Bogor mayor

JAKARTA (JP): Bogor Mayor H. Eddy Gunardi says he is ready to
face a lawsuit planned by the owner of a house demolished last
January by mayoralty officials.

"Go ahead and sue. I'm ready to face it. The demolition was
justifiable in view of the fact that the house was put up without
a legal building permit," he said on Tuesday.

He added that the house was demolished because its existence
ran counter to the city's master plan.

The mayor was responding to media reports that the owner of
the house, Aminah Toriq, was preparing a lawsuit against him for
the demolition of her house.

The mansion, reportedly worth Rp 1 billion was located on Jl.
Terusan Bukit Tunggul in Babakan subdistrict, North Bogor. It was
bulldozed by city administration's personnel on orders from the
mayor on Jan. 19 despite the fact that the owner had secured a
letter from the Bandung High Court ordering the postponement of
the demolition pending further studies, Antara reported.

The mansion, including a swimming pool and a tennis court
located in the house compound, were destroyed.

The house was demolished to make way for the construction of a
through road.

Eddy said that Aminah knew all along that the location would
be used by the administration for the opening of a through road,
so her application for a building permit was turned down. She
submitted the application letter on Oct.1, 1993.

"But Aminah continued to build the house, blatantly ignoring
several official warnings letters issued by me," the mayor said.

He said he then lost his patience. On Jan. 12 he officially
issued an order assigning mayoralty officials to demolish the
house.

But on the day the demolition was to take place initially, the
Bandung High Court issued a letter ordering the mayor to postpone
any action pending further developments.

Eddy said he was surprised at the court's order. "It took me a
week to study the letter. But finally, having studied it very
carefully from various legal aspects, and with a view to
safeguarding the city administration's authority, I decided to go
ahead with the demolition," he said. (bas)