"Around 100 houses have been built on the land owned by three foundations and designated as a graveyard. This is also the fault of the city`s agrarian affairs office which has issued land ownership certificates to the people who built the houses," Muhammad Konoras, a spokesman for the group, said here on Saturday.
The city administration should take stern action against the land grabbers who had built houses on an empty part of the graveyard, Konoras said.
The graveyard was used to bury the dead of Ternate`s Muslim, Christian and Chinese communities, he said.
Konoras said the Ternate authorities should not try to settle the problem by taking the land grabbers to court because that would take too much time. "They should act like the Jakarta city administration which often just dismantles illegally-built dwellings without waiting for court orders," he said.
Meanwhile, Ternate city`s vice mayor had earlier said local authorities would uphold law and order with regard to the graveyard problem by, among other things building a fence around ​the cemetery.
Ternate city`s territory covers a total area of ​547,736 square kilometers and comprises eight islands, namely Ternate, Hiri, Moti, Mayau, and Tifure.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
