Dili, March 4, 2025 (Média Democracia) – Regarding the widening of the road from Culu-hun Village to Fatu-Ahi Village, which has an impact on community property rights, it must go through the legal process as stipulated in Law Number 8 of 2017.
Speaker, José Maria Ximenes said that after a meeting held in Becora village on January 10, 2025 led by SEATOU and representatives of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), representatives of the Dili City Government, the Cristo-Rei Post Administrator, community leaders, and affected communities showed good cooperation.
“We contributed to the development process at the first road enlargement marking, even though the government has not conducted any socialization, each of us is destroying our own work, even the government has not carried out its duties in accordance with the procedures of Law 8/2017,” he said.
He informed that today, the press conference was attended by the affected community of Becora Village who stated that they outright reject the plan to widen the second road marking. Because this has a huge impact on the lives of the people, most of whom depend on business activities from marked land.
“We demand that the government immediately complete the first road marking to be built in accordance with the provisions of Law Number 8 of 2017 with the following stages, even though there are several things that have been violated by the government,” he said.
The government must declare that this project is in the public interest, meaning that this project is important for the national or community interest, identify the community affected by this project, at this stage the government has also committed violations because it has carried out the marking first. The government must conduct an assessment of priority values to indicate fair compensation and examine negotiations with the community.
“The government must coordinate with the community regarding compensation before entering the obligation process, if they do not coordinate then the government can issue a takeover decision letter with legitimate reasons, a notification letter for fair compensation payments, the community must receive compensation before the state takes their land.” He added.
The socialization led by SEATOU stated that the road will be widened from the Culu-hun bridge to Fatu-ahi, divided into two lanes. The Technical Section – Roads (MOP) and Terras e Propriedade have measured and conducted a survey of land data and things that will be affected by this widening.
The boundary marks on the land that will be used for road widening have been marked with arrows and risks for each land and things that will receive compensation from the road.
“There will be two meetings with the land owner (separately), negotiation of compensation price, signing on acceptance term of compensation price, payment of compensation by transferring money to the land owner’s bank account,” he said.
The affected communities are confused because until February 10, 2025, the uncertainty faced by the community is because the second meeting with the affected communities promised by SEATOU has not been held.
“Within a period of one month, we asked about the acceptance period at MOP, but they said they didn’t know because they were only technicians, they measured (land or houses) but didn’t have the competence, so they asked to ask SEATOU, then we went to SEATOU and they said go to MOP, because this is MOP’s project, then to Terras e Propriedade regarding the affected land, they said this is MOP’s project, Terras e Propriedade is not responsible.” He added.
“We asked about the land that we evicted due to road widening. The MOP technician said that the land was under the authority of Terras e Prooriedade, the technician did a second marking, and they pressured the community by saying that the owner must destroy it themselves once again, because if they do not destroy it himself, the excavator will destroy it.” He continued.
He said that the affected community was confused and did not know where to complain to get a clear explanation from the relevant parties.
“The institution that had a dialogue with us, all raised their hands and did not know. From MOP, they claimed to be technicians and did not have the competence to explain clearly to us. The team also promised that the data of affected residents would be published at the Becora Village office, unfortunately the agreement did not happen,” he said.
Even though the promises did not come true, the community was aware that they agreed to the 3-meter road expansion and most of them damaged their houses and fences that were affected.
On February 17, 2025, the Minister of Public Works, Samuel Marçal deployed a heavy team to carry out evictions in the public space of the former Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) in Culu-hun. The minister stated in the media that he came with the intention of seeing the community who voluntarily destroyed their homes, but did not have the capacity to collect the building materials damaged by the community.
Two or three days after the Minister accompanied the eviction, no one protested, the Minister changed his mind and asked the MOP team to create new data and measure three meters from the three meters that had previously been marked and socialized.
“The size is more than three meters back, making us as affected communities not believe in MOP and the team. We think the minister made this project a dream.” He said
The affected community considers this project as a “dream” because until now they have not received information that the road widening will reach six meters, but only three meters.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania