Land owners seek certainty in Islamic City

JAKARTA (JP): About 20 people requested the Islamic Village Foundation developer to tell them yesterday about the status of their land.

The location and rights of the land in Karawaci, Tangerang, that they have bought since 1973 are unclear.

The land owners met yesterday to discuss the status of the land they had bought from the foundation.

The meeting was organized by the Center of Information and Management of Environment.

The center's chairman, Ilhamy Elias, said his sister and brother had also bought land there. Around 200 people were disappointed with the foundation.

Ilhamy said he feared he would be a target for disappointed consumers because the developer, which had taken over the foundation's land, had used his name. The land had changed hands several times, he said.

The Islamic Village was renamed Vila Ilhamy by its developer, PT Mustika Hadi Asri.

Last November, State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung dedicated the 104-hectare housing development, in which all houses would face west toward Mecca.

The foundation is chaired by Yunan Helmi Nasution, a preacher.

A foundation executive, Istiqnan Helmy Nasution, said in a letter published in the Suara Karya daily on April 17 that the foundation had appointed Mustika Hadi as the developer.

He said that the foundation had helped arranged 433 land title documents. But those at yesterday's meeting were skeptical about this figure.

They showed receipts, land and building permits and documents from the foundation which they claimed gave them the right to build houses.

They complained that since buying the plots they had been asked to pay high additional costs to build infrastructure at the site.

They said they had already paid the foundation a lot for infrastructure and land titles.

Amir, one of owners, said the foundation told him that he could sell the land back to them at a very low price if he couldn't afford the additional costs.

Few people have built houses at the site, although schools, hospitals, mosques and other public buildings have already been built.

Several owners said they feared the foundation had sold their plots to third parties.

Middle-class Moslems are buying more houses in housing estates, which are often promoted in Koranic reading centers.

The government supports the establishment of new residential areas, but has said it will take strong measures against fraudulent developers or those delaying their projects beyond agreed construction timetables. (03)