Jakarta - A group of farmers evicted from their land in 1974 to make way for a cattle ranch for former president Suharto, Monday called on the attorney general to take the veteran leader to court.
Some 100 farmers from Cibedug in the slope of the Salak mountain about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of here, picketted the attorney general's office to call for the attorney general to take Suharto to court over their forced eviction. The farmers demanded that "the attorney general investigate the wealth of Suharto and his family which was obtained through collusion, corruption, nepotism and forced land appropriation and to drag him to the proper court through the Tapos Project."
In a statement handed to officials at the attorney general's office, they said building a case against Suharto based on the forced eviction of farmers for the Tapos ranch project was "the easiest way" to start investigating the wealth of Suharto and his family. They were referring to the 750 hectare (1,853 acre) Tapos ranch project where Suharto bred and developed superior cattle for breeding and research.
The farmers have claimed that they were not compensated for some 300 hectares (740 acres) of land appropriated and developed by PT Rejo Sari Bumi (RSB) as part of the Tapos ranch in 1974.
Shortly after the fall of Suharto in May, hundreds of farmers reoccupied their land taken for the Tapos project and began replanting it with various crops. But on Saturday, 100 people in the payroll of RSB attacked farmers working on the reclaimed land, damaged the crops and burned their shacks.
The farmers in their statement also demanded that besides returning their land titles, the attorney general should also bring the attackers who had terrorised and intimidated the farmers to court. The farmers left after handing over the statement and headed to the National Land Agency to stage a similar protest.
In their statement, the farmers who claimed to represent some 500 families evicted from their land to make way for the ranch, demanded that the National Land Agency cancel land titles accorded to Suharto concerning the disputed lands or at least deny an extension of the land title when it expires in December 2000. No incidents were reported in the demonstration at the attorney general's office.