Soeharto orders probe into Bekasi land title forgeries

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto ordered State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono yesterday to step up efforts to eradicate increasingly rampant land title forgeries and punish those found guilty of the crime.

"The President particularly ordered me to investigate forgeries in Bekasi where at least 200 documents were falsified," Soni said after meeting with Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.

The culprits had used sophisticated ways to produce land titles by using fake stamps and other documents.

"They sell them for Rp 200,000 (US$68) per document," said Soni, adding that none of his officials were involved in the crime.

Soni stressed the culprits must be punished severely because they had committed subversion against the government.

"Their activities do ruin the government constellation," he said.

They forged not only stamps of the mayoralty offices in Bogor, West Jakarta and Bekasi, but also other documents, including tax payment receipts.

"Laymen frequently cannot identify whether the fake documents are genuine as they are produced on brownish paper to make them look old," Soni said.

The Bekasi police have questioned eight people for allegedly being involved in land title forgeries.

One of them was a former official of the National Land Agency, who was fired a long time ago.

Soni urged people to be careful, when they intended to buy land, asking them to check the land certificates with the local agrarian office.

The minister said that the land title forgeries, which are believed to have involved officials of local administrations, are becoming increasingly rampant, not only in Greater Jakarta, but also in other provinces, including West Java and Central Java.

Soeharto also instructed Soni, who is chairman of National Land Agency, to simplify procedures regarding land title acquisition and to abolish unnecessary costs paid by land owners when arranging the certificates.

In 1994 the World Bank and Australian government funded a national land title program for which Greater Jakarta was chosen as a pilot project.

The program was designed to help accelerate the issuance of land certificates. This is in line with the government's computerization of the registration of all land throughout Indonesia, Soni said.

Non-governmental organizations, however, have continuously criticized the bank for its lack of control over the program.

"With the assistance of their foreign counterparts, they have tried to foil the program," Soni said.

He acknowledged that some irregularities had occurred, but pointed out the importance of the program.

"We have convinced the bank that it benefits people," he added.

Soni further said the government issued a decree this year to help with the issuance of land titles for 75 million plots across the country.

"We appeal to the public to go directly to local agrarian offices to process their documents. The cost is very transparent," Soni said. (prb)