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.