Rights Body promises to set up a team to help evicted people

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights promised yesterday to urge the government to set up a team to settle land disputes dating back to former president Soeharto's 32 years in power.

"We will soon set up an internal plenary meeting and will then send a letter to President B.J. Habibie, asking him to set up the team," commission member Clementino dos Reis Amaral told 50 representatives of evicted people.

The 50 representatives told commission members Amaral and Soegiri in a meeting yesterday how their thousands of hectares of land located in and around Jakarta had been cleared without their consent when Soeharto was in power.

According to Amaral, out of the average of 10 public complaints the commission receives per day, seven are about land disputes.

Government officials, military personnel and police officers were often involved in forcing people to leave their land immediately, he said.

"So, we congratulate you for having set up a union for evicted people. It's will be easier to identify the problems," Amaral said, referring to the union called Komunitas Korban Penggusuran (Evicted Victims Community) set up by the representatives last week at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

He asked the representatives to submit details of the disputes to the commission as soon as possible to enable the members to make a start on the campaign.

In response, the union's chairman, Rahardjo Darsoprajitno, thanked the commission for their promise.

"The problems were created by the then president Soeharto. So the solution should come from our current President Habibie," said Rahardjo. He was representing Kemayoran residents, who claim they were evicted by the State Secretariat under Soeharto' rule.

A residential area is now being constructed on their land.

Rahardjo said the people were finding it hard to reclaim their property as judges had always rejected their lawsuits.

"The judges always supported the New Order government's interests," he said, referring to Soeharto's administration.

Separately yesterday, about 300 farmers from Cibaliung village in Pandeglang, West Java, went to the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations here, demanding their 1,500 hectares occupied by state-owned forestry enterprise PT Perhutani be returned to them.

The farmers claimed the land had been owned by their ancestors since 1915. (jun)