Rights body asks Soerjono to revoke decision
Rights body asks Soerjono to revoke decision
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights added to the already mounting pressure on the chief justice to uphold the Supreme Court's decision to award an Irian Jaya villager Rp 6 billion ($8.5 million) in compensation in a land dispute with the government.
"The commission deeply regrets the cancellation of the verdict," commission chief Ali Said was quoted by his deputy Marzuki Darusman yesterday.
Chief Justice Soerjono sent a letter to the district court of Jayapura, Irian Jaya, this month to the effect that the Supreme Court's verdict in favor of plaintiff Hanoch Hebe Ohee cannot be executed.
Soerjono argued that the defendant, the Irian Jaya provincial government, was not a public legal body with its own property.
Marzuki said Soerjono's letter was a personal one which had no legal authority whatsoever to annul the final verdict.
The press meeting was attended by prominent commission members like Baharuddin Lopa, Roekmini Koesoemo Astoeti, Sri Soemantri, Djoko Soegianto, Bambang W. Soeharto, Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, and Asmara Nababan.
The rights commission also urged Soerjono to revoke his letter for the sake of the Indonesian judicial system's image.
"Soerjono's reasoning to cancel the supreme court's decision by just saying that the Irian Jaya governor is not a public legal body and has no own property is groundless," Marzuki said.
The dispute over the 62 hectare plot of land, located about 30 kilometers from the Sentani Airport, began in 1984 when Ohee sought to regain the property controlled by the Irian government.
Ohee, who has spent no less than Rp 1 billion ($450,000) in the 10 year legal battle, claims that the property is communal land belonging to his clan since the 1940s.
He won the legal battle at the district court level in July 1985. After losing an appeal to the high court, the provincial government appealed to the supreme court in 1988 and lost again.
Irian Jaya governor Jacob Pattipi initially asserted his readiness to pay for the land. But he later said that the government had only Rp 8 billion on hand and asked for postponement of payment.
Baharuddin Lopa warned that Soerjono set a bad precedence when he revoked the supreme court's final decision with his "personal note" to the extent that people would lose confidence in the court.
"In the future, people may consider it useless to seek legal solutions," he said.
He said that Soerjono "has gone too far" with the letter which is irrelevant to Pattipi's request for only postponement of payment.
He also said that there would be no problem for Soerjono to cancel his letter.
"Nothing in this world is unchangeable," he said, adding that the revocation of the letter was not against the regulation as it was for the people's benefit.
Meanwhile Sri Soemantri said Soerjono's letter, which described a governor as a "non-public legal body" has no legal basis.
"According to the Law No. 5/1974 (on public administration), a governor is a head of a province who is empowered to represent the local people," he said.
All commission members agreed that all parties in dispute could sit and again discuss a fair solution to the problem.
"The disputed parties can discuss the amount of the compensation," Marzuki said.
"The compensation could be paid by the Irian Jaya provincial administration in installments," Lopa added. (imn)