Govt pursuing all legal options on Kedungombo ruling

Govt pursuing all legal options on Kedungombo ruling

JAKARTA (JP): The government yesterday said it would go
through every legal channel to fight the compensation arrangement
set by the Supreme Court for the displaced villagers of
Kedungombo, Central Java.

State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono said the court
ruling on the Kedungombo dispute was raised during a meeting with
President Soeharto yesterday at Merdeka Palace.

Chief Justice Purwoto Gandasubrata last week said a delay of a
ruling could only be granted in very exceptional cases and
theoretically, the government must pay up immediately.

Soni said, however, that the government does not have the
budget to pay the huge amount of compensation as ordered by the
court ruling.

He explained that the government has to make a proposal for
every rupiah it wants to spend, which in turn has to be approved
by the House of Representatives.

"This is the people's money we're talking about," he said,
adding that the government has to account for its spending to the
people.

The Supreme Court overturned the rulings of both lower courts
in the case pitting the government against 34 villagers in
Kedungombo, whose land was appropriated in the 1980s for a huge
dam project.

Both the Semarang District Court and the Central Java High
Court ruled for the government but the Supreme Court rejected the
outcomes and decided in favor of the villagers. In the end, they
set the compensation rates even higher than originally sought by
the farmers.

The Supreme Court ordered the government to pay Rp 50,000
(US$23) for each square meter, as compared to Rp 4,000 offered by
the government and Rp 10,000 sought by the farmers. The
government was also ordered to pay another Rp 2 billion
($950,000) for "non-material" loses.

Only 34 farmers out of the thousands who were displaced by the
dam project fought the government in court. However, the Supreme
Court ruling is raising fears that it will prompt others who
already accepted the compensation to come forward and sue the
government.

The 34 farmers together have nine hectares of land.

Soni said the government would file a new trial on the basis
that the compensation set by the Supreme Court was not realistic.

The prices of land in the area never reached Rp 50,000 per
square meter, he said. "Even in nearby towns, land prices have
not yet reached that amount."

He argued that the government's efforts to set a new trial
does not mean that it ignores the interests of the people.

"We always protect the interest of the majority of people. Of
more than 60,000 families, only 34 were not satisfied. Now we
talk about justice. Is it fair to we give special treatment for a
few people only? Needless to say, the majority of people who have
accepted the compensation will say it's not fair."

Dispute

Soni noted that the dispute actually lies between the 34
farmers and Central Java Governor Soewardi. But as it deals with
land, he was consulted by the governor about the possibility of
filing a new trial.

Soni yesterday also reported to President Soeharto about the
decreasing area of productive farmland on Java island as more and
more rice fields are being converted for other functions.

He said the President had assigned him, in coordination with
related government agencies, to safeguard the size of productive
farmland and keep it from decreasing.

He noted that the decrease was mostly caused by pressures from
businessmen, who put personal gains above the interest of the
people.

Even the policy requiring entrepreneurs to open a hectare of
farmland elsewhere for every hectare of farmland he converts has
not been effectively observed, he said.

"They are not abiding by this regulation. I have never seen
any businessman creating a new rice field," he said.

According to the 1993 Agricultural Census conducted by the
National Statistics Agency, the area of rice fields has decreased
by nearly half a million hectares in the last 10 years, from 18.3
million hectares in 1983 to 17.6 million hectares in 1993.

Java now has 14.7 percent fewer rice fields than in 1983. The
decrease in rice fields in provinces outside Java was 1.4
percent. (rid)