Thugs hired for land appropriation

JAKARTA (JP): A property dispute turned ugly over the weekend when dozens of men, reportedly hired by PT Technodev Inti Utama, a law consultant claiming to represent state-owned Bank Dagang Negara (BDN), attacked a building at Jl. Agus Salim 24, Central Jakarta.

Witnesses said that thugs, armed with hammers, stormed the two-story building where a number of corporations have their offices, including the Kiblat weekly, on Friday evening. They smashed down the doors and shattered windows in the building.

"We initially tried to defend ourselves but the thugs are more powerful than us," said Hadi Mujiono, a reporter of Kiblat, an Islamic journal with a circulation of 20,000.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar confirmed on Saturday that the Central Jakarta police precinct have asked the conflicting parties to settle the dispute through negotiations.

"The situation at that time was so tense and could have led to bloodshed if we had not gotten there," Latief said, adding that religious and ethnic sentiments had helped worsen the dispute.

The Kiblat Publisher Foundation said in a statement on Saturday that the attack was a part of a larger dispute involving the Kiblat Publisher Foundation, Technodev, BDN, the Indonesian Haj Pilgrimage Foundation and the Ya Bunayya Foundation.

The Ya Bunayya Foundation and the Kiblat Publisher Foundation are the joint publishers of Kiblat and Adzan magazines.

Ahmad Rofi' Usmani, the chairman of the Kiblat Publisher Foundation, said that the Indonesian Haj Pilgrimage Foundation illegally sold the land and the building to Technodev.

"They did not discuss it with either Ya Bunayya or Kiblat," Usmani said, adding that based on the land sale documents, the Central Jakarta mayoralty administration issued a decree on Aug. 22, which permits Technodev to take over the land.

"They have repeatedly tried to take possession of the building by force since Aug. 22, but always failed due to fierce resistance from Kiblat reporters," he said.

The PT Technodev management could not be reached for comment.

According to Usmani, the building which was constructed in the 1970s, belongs to the readers of Kiblat, who donated funds to finance its development.

Usmani said that the other companies now occupying the building had also sent a letter to the Central Jakarta police, asking them to protect them.

The signatories of the letter, of which a copy was faxed to The Jakarta Post, include the Ya Bunayya Foundation, the management of Kiblat weekly, PT Yala Teknosa, PT Al-Amin Sarana Kreasi, PT Bunayya Media and PT Mafhabor Indonesia.

According to Hadi, PT Yala Teknosa is a subsidiary of the Citra Lamtoro Gung business group, which is controlled by Siti Hadiyanti Rukmana, the eldest daughter of President Soeharto. (09)