'Intimidated' residents complain to rights body

JAKARTA (JP): More than 150 residents of Tanah Merah subdistrict, North Jakarta, visited the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday to complain about intimidation by hoodlums in a five-year-old land dispute.

Spokesman for the residents M. Sugianto said that a dozen hoodlums, who were hired by private developer PT Pangestu Luhur, threw stones at the residents' tents and makeshift houses on Jl. Plumpang in Koja district Wednesday night.

Sugianto said PT Pangestu Luhur and PT Multi Data Paramestra, which are contracted by Pertamina to build an office building on the property, had started to build a fence enclosing the land.

"The hoodlums slapped women who tried to remonstrate with them. Some of them even dropped their trousers in front of the housewives," Sugianto said.

One of the residents, Berta, said the hoodlums threatened local residents with swords and sharpened bamboos and disturbed people passing through the area.

"We are poor people; we don't have the power to fight them. We have reported our case to the House of Representatives and the human rights commission, but it seems hopeless," she said.

Yesterday's visit to the commission's office was the residents' fourth.

The last was on July 16 after which the rights body sent a letter signed by its secretary-general, Baharudin Lopa, to Pertamina and related parties requiring them to stop the construction of the fence until the case was settled.

Sugiarto said the dispute began in 1992 when Pertamina ordered more than 300 families, or 1,132 people, who occupied its 16- hectare to move away. The families accepted then that the land legally belonged to the state oil company.

However, the residents, who have managed the land since 1965, refused leave. They also turned down compensation of Rp 37,000 (US$14.50) per square meter of their houses offered by the company, he said.

He said the residents would move as long as Pertamina gave additional compensation amounting to Rp 150,000 for each square meter of their farm land as well.

Officers from North Jakarta mayoralty assisted by police and military officers torn down their homes on a request from Pertamina in 1992. The people then started to live in tents and makeshift houses.

The residents filed a lawsuit against Pertamina, North Jakarta mayoralty and the city administration in the Central Jakarta District Court later the same year.

The court decided that the oil company had to give compensation for homes and land according to the residents' demands.

The court also asked the North Jakarta Mayoralty and City Administration to pay Rp 5 million to the residents in compensation of their damaged homes.

In 1993, the Jakarta High Court upheld the district court's decision, but Pertamina appealed.

The case is currently waiting to be heard in the Supreme Court, Sugianto said.

After failing to meet representatives of the commission yesterday, the residents went to the North Jakarta police precinct to report the case. (jun)