Kembangan demolitions protested

Kembangan demolitions protested

JAKARTA (JP): Residents of Kembangan, West Jakarta, complained
to the Human Rights Commission yesterday over what they say was
the arbitrary demolition of their homes by the city
administration.

Fifteen people, representing the owners of 60 houses torn down
by the administration last Saturday, told the Commission that
they had not yet received any warning prior to the demolition.
They said that, on the contrary, they had received assurances
that their homes would be spared.

"We had been told before that our houses would not be pulled
down," residents' spokesman Fauzi said.

The demolished houses had been located on a 4,000-square-meter
piece of land adjacent to the bank of the Angke River. The 60
houses in question were among 500 shanties demolished by the
authorities last Saturday.

The demolitions began on Nov. 1 in North Kedoya. From that
time onward, the Kembangan families had wondered whether their
homes had also been selected for destruction, the residents said.

"The authorities said 'no'," said Fauzi.

The residents said they had subsequently received further
confirmation from authorities that their land was not part of the
clean river program.

"But only two hours after the demolition of North Kedoya, two
bulldozers made their way across the river to our area and
started to demolish our houses," Fauzi said.

Like their fellow-residents in North Kedoya, who have since
been living in makeshift tents erected in the neighboring Green
Garden luxury housing estate, the Kembangan residents are now
also living in tents wherever they can find space to put them up.

The residents said yesterday that they bought the land on
which their houses had stood from a local land owner in 1983.

Commission member Roekmini Koesoema Astoeti said she would
clarify the status of the land and help the residents discuss the
compensation demanded with the authorities. (03)