Rights body to probe slum demolition case
Rights body to probe slum demolition case
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights has pledged to investigate a slum demolition case filed by a North Jakarta slum community of Kampung Bahari.
"We'll check with the North Jakarta mayoralty regarding the allegedly siphoned-off compensation fund for the slum dwellers," Soegiri, a member of the commission told the community on Monday.
Some 20 residents present at the office of the commission said their homes had been demolished by personnel of the public works ministry.
This is their second visit to the commission office in two months. Some of the residents claimed that they had bought the land from Perum Pelabuhan, a state-run company administering the Jakarta port. Others claimed that they had legal building permits for their houses and paid their Land and Building taxes every year.
Rusbah, a resident, told The Jakarta Post that the community of the slum by Kali Tiram's bank was invited by the local district personnel two months ago and was told to relinquish their land rights for the sake of a river's cleaning project.
The residents said they agreed to give up their lands with a compensation but there had never been talks about the amount of the compensation money until their houses were demolished.
"It didn't crossed our minds that our lands will be brusquely appropriated without compensation," he added.
Rusbah said that residents had been ping-ponged from one government agency to another in the last two months in their search of explanation about the compensation money.
Residents said three days before the Idul Fitri holidays, public works and security personnel came to smash their homes, leaving most residents homeless during the holidays. Some, however, still refused to go and clinged to whatever left of their houses.
"They have to cross my dead body first before they totally demolish my house," said a resident who said she now has only two square meters left to share with her family.
"I gave away all the food I bought for the festivities to my neighbors," Tarjo, a driver of motorcycle taxi, said.(14)