Irian man can start again: Soerjono

Irian man can start again: Soerjono

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono said yesterday that the Jayapura district court had the authority either to comply with or ignore a letter he wrote to it earlier this month, purportedly overturning an earlier Supreme Court decision to award an Irianese man Rp 18.6 billion (US$8.5 million) in a land dispute with the governor of Irian Jaya.

"According to the law on the Supreme Court, only the head of a district court has the authority to execute or reject a decision of the supreme court," he said.

He said that the Supreme Court's earlier decision in favor of Hanoch Hebe Ohee, who represented the Ongge and Hanoch keret (sub-clans), could not be executed because the defendant was not a legal body which owned property.

He advised the plaintiffs to bring a new suit.

"In civil matters people can file lawsuits any time if they believe that a verdict is unfair," he said.

In 1992 the Supreme Court ordered the Irian Jaya governor and heads of the Irian Jaya office of the Directorate of Agriculture, the Directorate of Commercial Plantations, the Directorate of Forestry, the Directorate of Animal Husbandry, and the Directorate of Fishery to pay the plaintiff Rp 18.6 billion in compensation for land appropriated by the provincial administration.

The dispute, over a 62 hectare plot of land located about 30 kilometers from the Sentani Airport, began in 1984 when Ohee sought to regain the property from the Irian government.

Ohee, who has spent no less than Rp 1 billion (US$450,000) on the 10 year legal battle, claims that the property is communal land belonging to his clan since the 1940s.

He won the legal battle at the district court level in July, 1985. After losing an appeal to the high court, the provincial government appealed to the Supreme Court in 1988 and lost again.

Soerjono said yesterday that the lawsuit should have been filed, not only against the Irian Jaya governor, but also against the five agencies. (imn)