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)