Residents report to rights body

JAKARTA (JP): Seventy-six residents of the Pesanggrahan subdistrict, South Jakarta, reported complaints over the outer ring road project to the rights body.

A spokesman said residents were intimidated to receive offers for compensation by unnamed officials of the South Jakarta mayoralty.

In a written statement residents, represented by three people, demanded that the compensation payment be stopped.

In the subdistrict 322 families had to make way for the project. Residents said 85 percent of them refused compensation because a Jan. 4 order to appropriate the land, signed by mayor Pardjoko, was false.

"We are told our houses will be flattened by a bulldozer after the (May) elections," Misnan Saragih, a resident said.

Members of the National Commission for Human Rights, Miriam Budiardjo and TL Tobing, said land compensation based on a 1993 presidential decree should be done based on consultation with residents. (anr)