W. Jakarta evictees refuse to leave, want compensation
Bambang Nurbianto and Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Most of the evicted people who had been living on disputed land at Kampung Baru, Cengkareng Timur, in West Jakarta, insisted that they would stay on the land and demand compensation for the destruction of their homes.
Marlo Sitompul, chairman of Youth Front for the Poor (LPRM) that advocates on behalf of the people, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that most families demanded the state-owned housing company Perum Perumnas to provide adequate compensation that would at least cover the value of their houses if they were not allowed to rebuild at the site.
Another solution is to provide the 300 families with new house from Perum Perumnas without a down payment but they can pay in installment.
"The negotiation process with Perum Perumnas is still ongoing. So far we have yet to find a desirable solution," Marlo said.
The families were forcible thrown out after some 3,000 police and city public order officers bulldozed their houses on Wednesday causing a clash which resulted in 25 victims being hospitalized.
Councillor Abdul Azis Matnur from City Council Commission A overseeing legal and administrative affairs told the Post that the officials must not simply forget the newly homeless people.
"It's true that the evicted people's legal standing with the land is weak but the administration must also be responsible for them after the eviction," he said.
Governor Sutiyoso had said earlier that the eviction would go on and the people he termed squatters had two choices: return to their home villages outside of Jakarta or join the transmigration program, a government program.
Earlier, National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) vice chairman Solahudin Wahid slammed the governor for his statement that the eviction was acceptable because there were no fatalities and the evicted people were not his responsibility because they did not hold Jakarta ID cards.
According to the head of Perum Perumnas, Didin Sutadi, the problem started in 1998 when the West Jakarta mayoralty allowed unemployed people to farm on the neglected 55-hectare plot of land belonging to the company.
These farmers, Didin said, eventually built houses and "sold" them to other people. However, the new buyers in Kampung Baru received what seemed to be a legal document stating that they owned the land, and based on that asked the mayoralty and the City Council to delay the eviction.
Residents bought the land from three heirs of the original owner of the land, M. Yasin, beginning in 1998. The residents received copies of the land titles, which were supposedly certified by the National Land Agency in 2002.