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)