Some 200 residents of the former Bukit Jalil Estate broke into thunderous applause on hearing that they had won an injunction to prevent demolition of their houses for the next 21 days at least.

Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was scheduled to have torn down the last of the houses today, a move that the residents - all former estate workers - had been resisting.

NONE PKR vice-president N Surendran (left) made the announcement at 9am, hours after residents had blocked the entrance to their quarters to prevent the demolition of the 41 houses.

Surendran said the Kuala Lumpur High Court had issued the injunction late yesterday, after ruling that DBKL's eviction order was illegal.

“A full hearing will be called by the court within the (21-day) period. The court will then decide whether to revoke or extend the injunction order. Nevertheless the battle must continue,” Surendran said.

Also present were PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan and Sungei Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar, Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar, human rights commissioner Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah and activists.

Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, a member of Lawyers for Liberty, chided the authorities for using the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 1969 to evict the residents.

“This should not happen because Malaysia has endorsed the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993/77, which bars forceful eviction. (DBKL is going against what the government) endorsed in Geneva in 1993.”

The 220 Bukit Ja NONE lil Estate residents have been struggling to keep their homes ever since the estate was sold to DBKL in the 1980s. The land is now owned by Bukit Jalil Sdn Bhd.

The developer and DBKL are looking to evict the residents in order to develop a cemetery and housing projects on the land, but are only willing to pay RM23,000 per family in compensation.

The residents have rejected the offer on the basis that it barely makes up for unpaid contributions to the Employees Provident Fund and Socso, owed to them by a government contractor for continuing to work on the estate.

They also want a 1.6-ha plot of land where they can all build houses, or to be compensated with new terrace houses.