Local residents protest military detention of six

JAKARTA (JP): A group of residents from Sawangan Lama village, Depok, West Java, yesterday met with members of the House of Representatives to question the detention of six villagers by the district military command in relation to an unsettled land dispute in their area.

House members of the commission on political and security affairs, led by chairperson Aisyah Aminy, after hearing an explanation by several representatives of the group, promised to make further investigations into the matter.

"We were stripped bare of the land that supported our lives," said Sutia, a member of the 150-person group from Sawangan Lama.

Some 285 families were now left with no land to cultivate because the developer, which began clearing the land seven months ago, had put a fence around it. The people once tried to tear down the fence but the developing company immediately put it up again.

The villagers currently live outside the land which had once held their plantations and fish ponds.

"Certain people guard the place the whole time," Sutia said, adding that they seemed to be Armed Forces (ABRI) officers because they wear green army uniforms.

Abubakar S. Bahasoan, a lawyer who represented the people, said six villagers were detained by military officials when they were trying to settle the status of the disputed land.

"All the people of Sawangan Lama have in fact legal land title ownership certificates for their land," he pointed out.

The detainments, which took place without an arrest warrant, took place on Saturday.

"They were accused of being a member of a separatist movement," Abubakar said.

Later, however, the officials said they were angry with the people for letting some private television stations shoot an incident several months ago which showed the people tearing down the fence, he said.

Sutia explained that their land, totaling about 75 hectares, was cleared by PT Cisadane Perdana to make way for what the villagers heard would be a real estate complex.

"There was no negotiation, no discussion. We don't even know who the developers are and they never contacted us in the process," he said.

Sutia said they had met last August with House members from the ABRI faction, who promised to question the West Java government about the matter, but there has been no response from the authorities nor has there been any improvement in their condition since then.

Abubakar said he had taken the case to court but had been defeated. He was currently making an appeal to the Supreme Court.

"I suspect there is collusion between the developers, the military and the local officials," he said. (pwn)