Many buildings on Pulau Seribu unlawful

JAKARTA (JP): Many buildings in the privately owned Seribu islands are unlawful as they have no permit, and the owners do not have a certificate granting them the right to use them, an official said.

"Many of them do not have the documents because they (the owners) never applied for the papers," Head of the Association of Seribu Islands Tourism Djafar Tirtosentono told Antara on Sunday.

He called upon the city administration to pay serious attention to the issue, especially as the status of the islands will be upgraded, from a district to a regency, beginning Aug.1.

He said that a total of 44 out of 110 islands in the district, located north of Jakarta, are owned by business magnates, including Probosutedjo, Bambang Trihatmojo and Siti Hardiyanti "Tutut" Rukmana, who are all closely related to former president Soeharto, and Pontjo Sutowo, Tommy Winata, Ciputra and Surya Paloh.

The government should take firm measures against the violations, which have been so far been ignored, especially by the New Order administration, he said.

As for those who own the right to use the land or buildings, Djafar said that in the future, the government should be very careful in extending the validity of the documents, which usually last for 10 years.

The authorities should ensure that they can recover their rights to the islands and use them for the benefit of the public. "Don't repeat past (mistakes)," he said.

Even though it is called "seribu" or "a thousand" islands, there are only 110 islands in the site, which covers a total of 69,976 square kilometers, including 9,214 square kilometers of land.

Only 60 percent of the area could be developed, Djafar said.

According to a decree issued by the Ministry of Forestry, the area is divided into four zones: main, protected, supporting and utilized.

The main zone should not be developed at all, the protected zone could be developed under special circumstances, while the supporting zone covered islands which are inhabited. Only the last one, the utilized zone, could be developed.

"There are only 44 islands in that zone, which all belong to conglomerates," he said.

Most of the islands have been developed into holiday resorts.

To develop the islands, the owner should have made an environmental impact analysis and asked the city's urban planning department for approval of the block plan, and sought a permit from the governor to utilize the land before he could obtain the building and use permits.