NGOs seek support for review of land decree
NGOs seek support for review of land decree
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Non-governmental organizations are seeking public support to file
a request for a judicial review of a new presidential decree on
land which has widely been deemed as authoritarian.
Presidential Decree No. 36/2005 on the procurement of land for
public development purposes authorizes the government to take
over private property, should the owners fail to agree on
compensation offered to them.
"We will request a judicial review of the decree because it
can cause gross human rights problems in the future by forced
evictions, intimidation and even physical threats," said leading
environmental group Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi)
executive director Chalid Muhammad.
"We are not against development, but we are against it if the
land is used for business purposes," he said.
Chalid said the request will be submitted to the Supreme Court
on July 29 by Walhi and many other NGOs grouped in the Coalition
of Mutual Cooperation for Citizens, with the support of the
public.
The NGOs include the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law
(ICEL), the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), the Foundation
of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), and the Institute
for Policy Research and Advocacy.
To seek public support for the planned judicial review, they
will open command posts in at least 24 provinces across
Indonesia, through which some 10,000 residents are expected to
give their signatures to back the move.
"Fifty fellow lawyers all over the country are ready to serve
as legal advisors for local communities and non-governmental
organizations," said Chairil Syah of the YLBHI.
Around 100 residents of Bojong in Bogor, West Java, came to
the Walhi office in Jakarta on Tuesday to give support for the
move to oppose the presidential decree, while providing copies of
their identity cards to the environmental group.
They were among thousands of Bojong people who had protested
against the establishment of a garbage dump in their area for
Jakarta residents. Their protests often turned violent and they
were threatened by hired thugs.
Muslim cleric Mizar, representing the Bojong residents, said
their presence here was to lend support for the plan to file a
judicial review of the much-criticized decree.
He also said he hoped other communities would not suffer the
violence and intimidation that they had experienced.
"We have experienced the bitterness of being forced to let
people dump waste in the name of public use in our area. But it
was actually for business purposes," said Mizar.
Pak Oman, who was born and raised in Bojong, admitted that he
saw his neighbors beaten up and forced to sign a letter of
agreement for the building of a waste treatment plant in the
village.
"Some villagers were forced to sign an agreement and were
enticed with payments of between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000 per
family to sign," Oman told The Jakarta Post. (004)