Regent warns businessman

JAKARTA (JP): Tangerang regent H. Saifullah A.R. has warned businessman Theo Soe Kiat, alias Adi Pranata, not to act arbitrarily in appropriating a plot of land that belongs to the local people of Jatake in the Legok subdistrict, Tangerang.

"I hope the land appropriation dispute can be settled amicably. Otherwise I propose that the villagers whose land was appropriated by Theo without proper compensation file a lawsuit against him (Theo)," Saifullah said in Tangerang over the weekend as quoted by Antara.

The regent was responding to recent complaints raised by two hundred Jatake villagers with the National Commission on Human Rights about the forgery of land ownership documents by Theo who reportedly claimed to be a "Cendana man"--an obvious reference to the residential address of President Soeharto.

The land for which the documents were forged was occupied by 60 families.

One of the villagers told Antara that Theo told them that their land would be appropriated for state-owned soybean and corn plantation projects. He said the villagers agreed to accept Rp 300 per square meter for their land because it was for government projects, in which they were told they could participate.

However, Theo later reportedly used about one hectare of the land for a palm nursery he owned. In 1989, the National Bureau for Land Affairs issued land certificates for the villagers. "But Theo confiscated the certificates," the villager claimed.

The villagers charged that Theo had forced them to sign blank sheets of paper when he took their documents.(bas)