The administration of Kator payam has asked the Catholic Church to withdraw the ownership of land it seized from Kasava residents in Juba.
The statement comes after people have started rebuilding their houses in Kasava, an area which was demolished earlier this year.The people displaced from Kasava were not compensated and had to move into other illegal residential areas.
Deputy Director of Kator Payam Alex Mathi told Bakhita Radio this morning that Kasava was originally demarcated and distributed but the survey office lost the plan and maps during the war.
He said a committee from Kasava and the payam administration identified the area and now they are asking the Catholic Church to withdraw its ownership of the land and hand it back to the residents who were demolished illegally.
Fr. Samuel Abe, the financial administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba in charge of the Church’s assets, rejected the claim that the Church has claimed community land.
He explained that the borders between residential areas and the church land were marked by the white missionaries and the Church has the ownership documents.
Fr. Abe appeal to the administration of Kator Payam to help residents to understand the matter clearly before they incur in another loss of property.
He warned those who started reconstructing houses in Kasava that they will lose it for the second time.
Some residents whose houses were demolished early this year in Kasava have started already rebuilding their places after the payam administration demarcated plots for them.