Twelve evicted squatter families comprising about 40 men, women and children have refused to leave what was once known as Kampung Stinggang along Sungai Sarawak in Kuching even after five visits from the Land & Survey demolition teams.

A 10-member demolition team, accompanied by an equal number of policemen, went to the site the past two days to take down their makeshift huts next to the former squatter village in Jalan Petanak.

A spokesman for the squatter group Impi Sayot told malaysiakini : "It's not that we don't want to leave, but we've nowhere else to stay."

He said they would not move until they are reasonably compensated by the authorities or given land lots to build their own houses.

Last month, the Land & Survey Department demolished the squatter houses after giving them a week's notice.

The group is part of an original squatter colony comprising more than 100 families on a site that is now said to be state land about to be or has been alienated to a company for commercial development purposes.

RM500 too little

Impi said that recently they were told by land officials that the authorities were prepared to compensate them RM500 each.

"But what can we do with RM500? That can barely cover costs of our moving away," he added.

He had also heard that the authorities had earlier offered RM2000 to each family but none of them had received a single cent.

Impi said the men, women and children have to tolerate the living conditions because there is no alternative for them.

"Even my own children have to miss school sometimes. One day they will come back to see even their temporary homes demolished. Due to inclement weather and the deplorable housing, our clothes and the children's textbooks get wet and have to be left out to dry the next day. That is why they have to miss class sometimes."

He said when it rains heavily, they will move out of the makeshift huts and sleep on the five-foot-way of a row of shophouses next to the site.

Impi appealed to the authorities to address their needs urgently.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini's Sarawak-based stringer.