Govt agencies reject land lawsuit

JAKARTA (JP): Three government agencies yesterday asked the South Jakarta District Court to dismiss a Rp 1.3 billion ($550,000) lawsuit filed against them by a small scale trader evicted from his land in 1989.

Lawyers representing the three defendants -- the Jakarta governor, the South Jakarta mayor and the director general of highways at the Ministry of Public Works -- said separately that the lawsuit is in the domain of the State Administrative Court.

The lawyers for the Jakarta governor also argued that if the plaintiff had been consistent, he would have sued the Armed Forces chief and the head of the Land Appropriation Committee as well, considering they were both involved in the eviction process.

The plaintiff, Henry M. Ali, was evicted from his 2,000 square meter plot in Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta, after he refused to accept the compensation offered by the authorities, saying that it was too low.

He made newspaper headlines when he pitched a tent on the same site the day after he was evicted and his property demolished.

His was the last property flattened by the authorities in the area to make way for the construction of a new flyover.

Henry has since launched a legal battle for proper compensation. This is his second lawsuit. The first one was dismissed by the same court on legal technicalities.

His lawyer, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, told The Jakarta Post that Henry's case exposed inconsistencies in the government's land use policy.

"When Henry first bought the property in 1979, he was told by the authorities that the area was designated for residential use. But later it turned out that they wanted to build a flyover," Tubagus said.

The lawyer said the demolition violated a 1993 presidential decree that requires parties in a land conflict to negotiate until they find a solution acceptable to both parties.

Henry wants Rp 300 million for his lost property and Rp 1 billion for "non-material" damages, he said. (16)