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)