Retired officers protest eviction

Retired officers protest eviction

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Three families of retired Air Force officers set up tents at
Maimoon Palace, Medan, North Sumatra, to protest their recent
eviction from their official homes on Jl. Mustang.

The protesters said they had done that because they had
nowhere to stay after their houses were bulldozed on Monday by
dozens of Air Force officers.

Dozens of other houses there had earlier been bulldozed, but
only the families of Col. (ret) Paniangan Harianja, Lt. Col.
(ret) Mohamad Rasyid Renni and Lt. Col. (ret) Abdul Cholik
staunchly opposed the eviction.

The three former military officers displayed their uniforms on
the tents along with medals they had won while still in service.

Paniangan, who once served as operations division chief at the
Air Force Headquarters between 1988 and 1991, said the eviction
was carried quietly at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, when his
family and others were still asleep.

He claimed he and other protesters had not been invited to
discuss the matter before their official homes were bulldozed.

Nor did the Air Force issue a letter ordering them to vacate
their houses, in which they had lived for many years, Paniangan
added.

"They (Air Force officers) deliberately evicted us in the
early morning to avoid it being witnessed by people and covered
by journalists.

"They consider us to be old, retired officers who are no
longer important," he said.

However, officers at the scene denied that the Air Force
office had failed to notify the evictees to leave their houses,
at which, they said, the retired soldiers were no longer entitled
to stay.

Paniangan accused the Air Force of using "inhuman measures to
expel us in the interests of wealthy people".

According to him, the land where their bulldozed houses stood
had been sold by the Air Force to developer PT Bina Reksa Estate,
which, he said, would build a luxury housing complex there.

Paniangan said his family and two others were not allowed to
take all their belongings from the destroyed houses. The items
that were removed were then taken away on trucks by the evictors.

He said he had reported the incident to Medan Police for
investigation.

Paniangan said the evictees had also appointed lawyers to file
a complaint against their eviction with the President, the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the
Ombudsman Commission, on Wednesday.

Salim, a lawyer from the Satgas Reformasi Ampera Legal Aid
Institute, condemned the eviction as a "human rights violation".

He said the eviction, which involved the use of dogs, totally
destroyed the peace of mind of his clients.

Citing an example, the lawyer said the wife of Abdul Cholik,
64, became hysterical as the dogs barked at her to leave the
house.

Local Air Force leaders could not be reached for comment on
the matter, while their personnel continued to destroy the three
houses on Tuesday and built a fence along Jl. Mustang, near
Polonia Airport.