Residents report to rights body

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)