It is a never ending saga for the residents of Kampung Berembang in Ampang.

Today their homes - mostly shelters which mushroomed after the last demolition exercise - were torn down by the authorities again, for the fourth time since last November.

The demolition today was carried out by a private developer with instructions from Acmar International, a private company listed under Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB), the land owners.

This is a departure from previous demolitions as those were carried out by the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council. Today no MPAJ officials were present.

The private demolition squad, supported by Rela members, started arriving to the village as early as 8am today. And their demolition work was still going on until about 7pm.

In between, there was a long cat-and-mouse game between the villagers and the contractors. While demolition team wanted to get on with their task of bulldozing the houses, the villagers wanted to negotiate until a solution was found for their plight.

Kampung Berembang was a scene of chaos and destruction when MPAJ, backed by Rela, the police and the Federal Reserve Unit, moved in to demolish houses in the village on three occasions - Nov 17, 20 and 30.

The 470 residents have been staying in the village - situated less than 10km from the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur - for the past 30 years.

On each previous demolitions exercises, the resistence by the villagers were met with physical action by the authorities.

An open clash flared on the second and third demolition visit, resulting in tensions running high among the villagers.

On the third visit, MPAJ demolished a surau and the makeshift tents set up by the villagers who refused to budge from the village.

Back door demolition

Villagers accused the developers as invaders who brought down their village to rubbles without following proper procedures.

"We didn't know anything about the demolition until they (developers) came in the morning and told us that they are here to negotiate with us," said villager Nor Alizan Ali.

"While we were negotiating at the front entrance, the workers have started to enter the village through the back entrance and have started demolition works. Is this what they call negotiation?" he asked.

Another villager, Sura Maskor, who has been living in Kampung Berembang for more than 30 years said that the developers also brought in gangsters who tried to hurt villagers who did not cooperate.

Socialist Party of Malaysia's pro-tem secretary-general S Arutchelvan, speaking on behalf of the villagers, said that an ex-parte injunction has been filed at Shah Alam High Court for a hearing on March 14 to decide on the future of the land.

"Despite the injunction, the developers came and levelled the village," he said.

The developers, he said, did not bring any court warrant that allowed for the demolition to take place.

Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) was called in around noon to intervene in the matter when developers and villagers failed to reach an agreement.

When confronted by Suhakam officer K Simon, PNSB's lawyer Hashim Ibrahim declined to comment on the demolition.

"I'm only responsible in preparing and filing the injunction. The demolition is beyond me. I can't comment on that," he said.

'What's Rela doing here?'

Arutchelvan also questioned the presence of Rela members at the village.

"The developers also brought along a group of Rela members to assist them with the demolition works," he said.

"Rela comes under Ministry of Internal Affairs. I just don't understand why Rela is here and why are they taking instructions from a private property developer," he asked.

A Rela official present at the site said that the volunteer corps came to the village with instructions from the Selangor state government to monitor the situation.

Police personnel were also present at the site. They refused to comment on the situation, saying that the demolition has nothing to do with them as the disagreement was between the villagers and the developer.

At about 2.30pm, Arutchelvan and a few villagers went to the Ampang police headquarters to lodge a police report.

Several activists and members from grassroots support group Jerit and others were also present at the site to support the villagers.

The support group included students movement Dema, whose members tried to physically stop a bulldozer from tearing down the houses ( photo )

Watch the seven-minute video here