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The Indonesian Armed Forces vowed on Wednesday to press ahead with its controversial plan to evict illegal tenants from military housing complexes, though it would allow a six-month grace period.

The military, also known as the TNI, said last month it would suspend the evictions following urgent calls from the House of Representatives. The House has set up a working committee to investigate the issue.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. I Wayan Midhio said the evictions must go ahead to ensure the homes were available for active military personnel.

Retired soldiers live in 39,675 of the 198,507 houses owned by the military. Most are on Java.

He said letters would be sent to the tenants reminding them to move out.

Retired soldiers would be able to stay until they died but then their extended families would be forced to leave.

The military’s demand for housing has triggered some forced evictions of retired soldiers and their families.

There were more than 30 disputes nationwide between residents of military housing and the Armed Forces between 2005 and 2009. According to the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), more than 3,000 people were evicted from their homes.

Lawmaker Enggartiasto Lukita, who sits on House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said a committee set up in February would soon look at the military’s housing problems.

The first thing to do was to certify millions of hectares of land managed by the military. He said only 13 percent of the military’s assets had been certified.

This had been a major barrier to building new houses.

Enggartiasto said the latest investigation had found that the main problem lay with the Finance Ministry and the National Land Agency (BPN).

The BPN had a complicated process for certification, while the Finance Ministry refused to give extra funds to speed up the system.

“We are still investigating why all this happens,” he said. “It could involve corruption, maybe. But for sure, if we want to settle this problem, the Finance Ministry and the BPN must have a commitment and be eager to sit down with the Defense Ministry and discuss a solution.”

The next step was to settle the legal dispute between the military and civilians claiming to own the assets, he said.

Enggartiasto said the Commission I had filed a request for the military to hand over all documents related to the disputes.

“We’ve heard that the military never shares the documents with anyone. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because some high-ranking officials have a conflict of interest,” he said.

“But we really need to find the best solutions.

“If we have all the information we will know which side should be supported; the military or the retired soldiers and their families.”