Kapuk residents reject eviction

JAKARTA (JP): At least 25 residents of Kapuk subdistrict, West Jakarta, visited the National Commission on Human Rights office yesterday, protesting the West Jakarta Mayoralty's plan to evict them from their homes for an expansion of a pig stable.

A representative for the residents, Syafrudin Retim, told the commission member Samsudin that some residents were forced to tear down their homes by officials of the Cengkareng district despite the absence of settlement in compensation.

Syafrudin said the residents were even intimidated because the West Jakarta Mayoralty intended to expand the pig stable owned by the city's husbandry office.

"Why do we have to be sacrificed for the sake of the establishment of the pig stable?" he asked.

He said 61 families turned down a compensation of only Rp 550,000 (US$203) per family offered by the mayoralty in a letter signed by the West Jakarta Mayor Sutardjianto dated July 31.

The mayoralty also ordered the residents to move away as their homes, according to the mayoralty, were located in a road's body and a gutter near the pig stable, Syafrudin said.

The residents, however, strongly rejected this argument, saying that the land they lived in had been managed since 1969. "The statement, which said that our land was on a road's body or a gutter, was baseless," he said.

"Some residents even have paid their land and building taxes," he said.

The residents whose professions ranged from drivers, factory workers, small traders to other blue-collar workers, now lived in makeshift houses and tents, he said. (jun)