Thugs hired for land appropriation

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)