“Yes, they have documentation, but what sort? In fact, they only have bills of sale for their homes, which were built on state land,” said Ahok as reported by city-owned news portal beritajakarta.com in Jakarta on Friday.

Ahok said based on a map made during the colonial era, the width of Ciliwung River was about 60 meters. “So the [original] width of the river was 60 meters, but now it is only between 5 to 10 meters. That means they reclaimed land without a permit,” he added.

He stressed that his administration intended to return the Ciliwung River to its original width to ease flooding in a number of places.

Meanwhile, the South Jakarta municipality will soon issue the third and last warning to the residents, said Ahok, before evictions were conducted.

Ahok said he would ignore objections by NGO activists. “They can protest, but give me a solution,” the governor said.

The residents filed a class-action suit against the plan to evict them on May 10. The case was handled by the Central Jakarta District Court. After examining the documents, the judge said their legal action was valid. (bbn)

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