Tanah Merah people strike back over demolition of their home
JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of residents living in a 160-hectare disputed plot of land in Tanah Merah, North Jakarta, visited the National Commission of Human Rights yesterday, asking the Commission to stop the demolition of their shanties by the government agencies.
"The Commission earlier had advised that the agencies respect the law. The Commission's remark, however, went unheeded," said M. Husni Thamrin, a spokesman for the 50-people delegation.
Husni said that government officials started bulldozing residents' makeshift homes last week.
Other delegation members told Baharuddin Lopa and Roekmini Koesoemo Astoeti, respectively secretary general and member of the Commission, that government agencies should halt the demolition pending a decision of the Supreme Court.
"If the government agencies themselves disrespect the law, how can they expect us to do so?" another delegation member asked.
Newspaper reports said that 1,132 residents of Tanah Merah won a law suit in the district court against the state-owned Pertamina oil company which claims to own the plot, the mayor of North Jakarta and the Jakarta governor, for evicting them in 1991.
The Central Jakarta district court also ruled that Pertamina must pay higher land compensation to the affected residents, and give Rp 5 million to each of the families for `non-material' losses.
Pertamina, however, stuck to the initial compensation package of Rp 37,000 per square meter and appealed to the Jakarta High Court, which later overruled the decision of the district court.
"We appealed to the Supreme Court in 1993 and are still waiting for the decision of the body," Husni said, adding that most of the area residents currently live in tents after a joint- team demolished their houses three years ago.
At the time security officers raided the area, detaining a number of residents and smashing their houses after breaking up the protection system of the protesters, who were equipped with bamboo spears.
Pertamina, which labeled the protesters squatters, plans to construct a depot on the land.
In response to the delegation's request, Lopa who is concurrently a director general at the Ministry of Justice said that he will ask his colleagues at the ministry to help solve the complicated case.
Both Lopa and Roekmini asked that the area residents respect the law and avoid violence.
Retired sergeant
Muhidin Hasyim, a retired Army sergeant who led the area resistance three years ago, did not show up at yesterday's hearing with the Commission.
Muhidin joined the Indonesian troops in the Netherlands- Indonesia dispute over Irian Jaya in 1960 and was sent to East Timor in 1976.
"We asked him not to come for tactical reasons," said Husni, adding that the high-tempered Muhidin usually avoids prolonged discussions.
He also said that prior to their visit to the Commission, the delegation also had visited the Supreme Court, asking the Court to intervene in the case.
"I dropped out of school after the incident three years ago. My future is now uncertain," said a 24-year old Ribut Sinar Romadhon, another delegation member.
Ribut told The Jakarta Post that his father had became insane due to having lost almost everything during the eviction.(09)