Paramilitary groups may worsen land dispute

Paramilitary groups may worsen land dispute

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The police's plan to announce the results of a fingerprint
analysis today may put an end to a long-running land dispute
between a woman and a developer, which has been worsened by the
involvement of organized gangs in the case.

West Jakarta Police forensic staff have been analyzing the
authenticity of an ownership certificate of a plot of land in the
Taman Permata Buana housing complex. A woman, Aminah Ilyas, owns
the document and claims the fingerprint on it and land are hers.

The 5,500-meter square land in question is now used as the
marketing office of the housing developer PT Mustika, the company
who asked the police to verify the authenticity of the
certificate.

A group of people from the Communication Forum of Islamic
Students (Forkassi) say they represent Aminah, and have twice
occupied the land where the office is situated.

On Saturday morning at least 100 men from the group attacked
the office, breaking windows and burning most of the documents
inside until they were dispersed by police, who arrested 47 of
the protesters.

Dozens of other members demanded they also be bought along for
questioning.

"There were lots of us involved in the attack. Why have the
police only arrested them?," Forkassi spokesman Tito Key was
quoted as saying by Detik.com.

The same group earlier occupied the office on May 26 for three
days before police forced them to leave three days later.

As they left the group, who were mostly Betawi (native
Jakartans) and Malukans clashed with a group of Bantenese who
supported the developer. One man was killed in the incident and
police later arrested the murderer. (006)