Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The military on Monday said the promise of 130 blocks of flats by the State Ministry of Public Housing was not enough to overcome an acute housing shortage that had seen the Army carry out mass evictions of retired soldiers over the last six years.

Public Housing Minister Suharso Monoarfa said on Monday that the Armed Forces (TNI) would be given 130 out of the total 650 housing blocks planned to be built this year.

Speaking after inaugurating a new flat complex at the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) headquarters in Jakarta, Manoarfa said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had asked him to find ways to fulfill the housing needs of low-income citizens, especially TNI personnel.

Army Chief Lt. Gen. George Toisutta, who also attended the ceremony, said the flats were still not enough to fulfill the Army's needs, adding that a twin block would only accommodate around 50 to 60 soldiers and their families.

Defense Ministry Secretary General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin had previously said the military needed at least 100,000 new homes for active-duty soldiers and their families.

The military demand for housing has triggered forced evictions of retired soldiers and their families from some military housing complexes.

The latest incident happened last month in East Jakarta, where 300 residents who had built their homes on military land in Cililitan held a rally against a planned eviction by the Army.

The military has been carrying out these evictions at housing complexes around the nation since 2004. It has said that in some cases, the families of the retired soldiers no longer lived in the complexes but had either sold or leased the housing units.

Toisutta said that despite the government's plan to build new housing for soldiers, the Army would continue forcing retired soldiers and their families out to cover the shortfall.

He said that besides helping overcome the Army's need for accommodations, the government had issued regulations that such housing can only be occupied by active military soldiers.

Monoarfa said the government would also try to find ways to help with the housing needs of retired soldiers who were evicted, some of whom had lived in the same home for many years and expected to retire there.

"My father lived in a very modest house in Senen for 31 years before being evicted in 2005," said Vionna Francisca. "My sisters and I were all born and grew up there."

Vionna said her then 65-year-old father received only enough compensation to buy a small one-room house on the edge of North Bekasi, far away from his daughters and his friends.

"Our house and others have been cleared and the land is still vacant," she said. "I don't know what the Army intends to do with it."