Land conflict in Cengkareng intensifies
Land conflict in Cengkareng intensifies
JAKARTA (JP): The municipal administration faces another potentially explosive land conflict in Cengkareng Timur in West Jakarta as around 1,500 families squatting on state land resist pressure to move.
The West Jakarta mayoralty served the first official notice to clear the area to the people occupying the 60-hectare disputed plot on Jan. 2.
A second notice will be served on Tuesday, Muhammad Latief, head of the Jakarta branch of the state-owned housing developer Perum Perumnas, which is planning to develop the area, said on Saturday.
If the residents continue to ignore the orders, as they have vowed they will, a third notice will be served. After that the mayoralty will forcibly evict them to make way for the demolition of the structures the squatters have put up in the area, Latief said.
The disputed plot is part of 334 hectares of land that was acquired in 1973 by the municipality. The area is designated for a housing complex to be developed by Perum Perumnas, the state housing company, with some World Bank financing. But as the housing project progressed, Perumnas encountered problems in 1987 with a plot of about 60 hectares because it had been occupied by 2,819 squatter families.
Various negotiations since then have kept breaking down over the amount of compensation the government should give to the squatters.
The conflict now appears to be coming to a head with the mayoralty serving the first formal notice, while the residents vow to hold their ground until the government improves the compensation offer.
A group of reporters visiting the location on Saturday found tension running high among the residents as they brace themselves for possible forcible eviction.
"We're true Indonesian citizens and will abide by any ruling laid down by the government. But why are the authorities neglecting our needs and simply concerned with theirs?" 70-year old Haji Memet asked.
The military is still hopeful that physical confrontation between the residents and the authorities can be avoided.
Col. S. Elgin, the head of the Law Section of the Jakarta Military Command, who has been assigned to help resolve the dispute, said he was employing various approaches to reach out to the residents and to gain their trust and understanding about the need for them to accept the government's offer.
Elgin's section will carry out the eviction and demolition, if it ever comes to that.
A team comprising representations from Perumnas, the police and military visited the site on Friday to formally serve the first notice of eviction. They were greeted with hostility.
The residents formed a long human barricade of children and adults. They charged at the government team and chased them out of the area. During the maneuver, the team managed to drop 200 copies of the notice at the location.
"We suspect that these families have the support of a third party who is trying to profit from the situation," Latief said.
Latief insisted that the authorities were making reasonable offers to the squatters, including the chance to own a house at an alternative Perumnas complex.
He said some of the residents who had originally accepted the offer had since gone back on their word.
He said 555 families that took the offer of an alternative Perumnas site have since returned to Cengkareng. Another 926 families took the compensation of between Rp 20,000 and Rp 55,000 a meter, but they too subsequently returned to the area.
The residents say they had their reasons for their change of mind.
"It's impossible to get even a small house in the city under the compensation offered so far," Marhusin, 34, said.
The residents are insisting that they be paid Rp 200,000 for every square meter of the buildings they own.
Earlier, the authorities were planning to demolish their structures on Dec. 22, but the residents lodged a protest with the House of Representatives (DPR) a day earlier.(bsr)