Squatters given collection deadline

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas has given squatters in Kapuk, West Jakarta, three days to collect their compensation.

"They must take their compensation in three days. We will not pay compensation after the deadline," said Didin Sutiadi, head of the Perum Perumnas branch of Cengkareng yesterday.

A gubernatorial decree is allowing Perum Perumnas to appropriate 334 hectares of land in Kapuk and Cengkareng Timur to construct a low-cost housing complex.

Perum Perumnas is offering residents compensation between Rp 20,000 and Rp 60,000 per square meter of building. It does not provide actual land compensation since, they say, the land belongs to the firm.

While 94 of the 995 families in Kapuk had rejected the paltry compensation offered, 30 of them accepted it yesterday after the West Jakarta authorities demolished their houses.

"It is better than nothing," a resident told The Jakarta Post.

West Jakarta mayoralty officials, police and military officers demolished the squatter houses in Kapuk two weeks ago. Around three hundred residents, including women and children, resisted the demolition by erecting makeshift barricades and throwing stones at the officers.

Despite their resistance, the officers managed to pull down 30 houses. More than 60 houses still stand on the site.

Didin disclosed that the 30 families accepted individual compensations ranging between Rp 975,000 and Rp 9 million. He declined to say how much was paid out to the 30 families, saying only that Perum Perumnas has allocated Rp 162 million in compensation funds for the 94 reluctant families.

Perum Perumnas had allocated Rp 2.44 billion for compensation to be paid to the owners of 1,200 houses occupied by 995 families in Kapuk.

Most of them have accepted compensation and already moved from the land. (29)