Squatters paid compensation

JAKARTA (JP): The State Housing Company, Perum Perumnas, yesterday paid compensation to 166 families of squatters in Cengkareng in a new bid to end a conflict that has delayed its plan to build low-cost houses in the West Jakarta area.

Didin Sutiadi, head of the company's Cengkareng branch, said yesterday that Perumnas plans to eventually pay the more than 1,400 families still occupying 21.6 hectares of its land in the area.

Perumnas is ready to pay compensation to 915 families in the next two weeks, and is still working out the details of the compensation for about 500 other families, he said.

The compensation offered by Perumnas ranged from Rp 20,000 ($9) and Rp 65,000 ($29) per square meter of land, far below the Rp 200,000 ($90) sought by some of the families.

The company is planning to build eight inexpensive five-story apartment buildings on the land and hopes that they will be ready by the end of the year.

Sutiadi said residents whose land has been confiscated would be given the first option to buy the housing.

The Perumnas housing project in Cengkareng is part of the government's program to upgrade areas in the city that have become slums, he added.

Head of the West Jakarta Office for Order and Security Affairs, Karsidin, meanwhile appealed yesterday to the Cengkareng residents to accept the latest Perumnas offer.

He said the authorities would move in to demolish their houses by the deadline in two weeks time.

"They have to take the compensation anyway since the land is owned by Perum Perumnas," he told reporters. "If they don't demolish their houses, the mayoralty officers will."

The site has seen its share of tension as the residents resisted pressure from the developer and the mayoralties to vacate the land. Previously, a series of negotiations over the level of compensation ended in a deadlock.

Last January, the residents, including many children, formed a long human barricade to stop Perumnas and mayoralty officials from entering the area to reopen negotiations.

Failing to enter, the officials simply issued leaflets serving notice to the residents to clear the land or face forceful eviction. The threat was not carried out at the time. (29)