Group visits rights body over land row
Group visits rights body over land row
JAKARTA (JP): At least 25 people claiming to be the heirs of
Pangeran Arya Jipang, the former owner of the land where Hotel
Ibis in Slipi, West Jakarta, is located, visited the National
Commission on Human Rights on Monday to seek support for their
land dispute.
The group, representing 77 heirs of Arya Jipang, arrived at
the commission's office on a bus and unfurled posters stating
that PT Putra Swadaya Prasetya, a private company which owns the
hotel, should be brought to court.
"We want the West Jakarta District Court to hear the case
because the company illegally occupied our land," the group's
spokeswoman, Khotija, said.
Khotija said the court had decided to throw out the case on
June 16, arguing it had no jurisdiction in the dispute since the
defendant, a subsidiary of publicly listed developer PT Putra
Surya Perkasa, was located on Jl. Jend. Sudirman in South
Jakarta.
The group, however, has insisted that the West Jakarta court
should handle the case since the disputed area is located in West
Jakarta.
They have brought their argument to the Jakarta High Court
through an appeal, she said, adding that the high court had yet
to make a ruling on the case."
In their lawsuit brought to court in May, the group charged
that the company illegally appropriated the 5,199-square-meter
plot on Jl. S. Parman.
They also demanded the district court to order the company to
vacate the land and provide Rp 500 million (US$45,454) in
compensation for material losses.
The group's lawyer, Gelora Tarigan, said earlier that the land
legally belonged to Arya Jipang, as recorded at the West Jakarta
office of the National Land Agency and the state-owned Heredity
Property Management Body.
PT Putra Surya Perkasa public relations head Robert P.S. said
his company had studied all the land's legal aspects before
investing a huge amount of money to build the hotel in 1991.
"The people are just making a claim. They are not the owners,"
Robert told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said his company was ready to take all necessary legal
procedures, but refused to provide further comments.
Human rights commission member Clementino dos Reis Amaral
urged the group on Monday to obtain their land title from the
land agency in order to back up their claim.
Tarigan said the plaintiffs were the legal heirs of Arya
Jipang as determined by the South Jakarta Islamic Religious Court
on June 15, 1981. (jun)