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