Home is where the heart is for Indonesia's stateless community

Perched on a riverbank in West Java, the 500 sq ft house doesn't have an indoor bathroom. But for Lim Ok Nio, her husband Tjo Siu Tjong and their 11 children, it's home - cement floor, dried sago palm roof and all. Maybe not for much longer, however.

The local government is planning to evict the family and several hundred of their neighbours who officials say are illegally squatting on state land. Most of them are poor Chinese-Indonesians, descendents of labourers shipped to Indonesia by its Dutch colonial administration in the 18th and 19th centuries.

'I've lived here for 30 years. I don't know of any place else to go to. And we are poor. My husband and a few of my children who have already started working are only doing menial jobs,' said Lim, 52.

Lim's son-in-law, Harman, who married her eldest daughter Meylan and lives next door, said the majority of residents have lived in the area for generations. Many bear little physical resemblance to their Chinese ancestors, their deeply tanned skin and rounded eyes making them look like indigenous Indonesians, who make up more than 90 per cent of the population.

But that still hasn't stopped the harassment, which remains a continual problem at the local level despite the repeal of discriminatory national laws against Chinese-Indonesians more than a decade ago.

'During elections, we are really taken advantage of, and we are forced to vote for certain local leaders,' Harman said, after initially being reluctant to talk.