February 17, 2014
Thousands of illegal residents in Dagon Seikkan township have vowed to defy an order from local authorities to leave their homes by the weekend or face eviction – and even jail time.
By Kyaw Phone Kyaw
Almost 8000 squatters in Dagon Seikkan’s No 67 ward were told by the township General Administration Department to leave by February 12 but the deadline was pushed back to February 16. The land they are living on is owned by the regional government, the department said in a notice.
The notice warned that those who do not comply with the order could face one month in prison under section 21(1) of the Lower Burma Town and Village Lands Act. They will even be charged by the authorities for the cost of demolishing their homes, the notice said.
But residents told The Myanmar Times last week they would not leave voluntarily.
“We are not moving,” said Ko San Min Oo, who has lived in the ward since 2004 and is its head firefighter. “If our houses are destroyed, we’ll live on the ground. But if they arrest us, we will go with them.”
He said he would not leave even if offered compensation, as his children are studying for free at a nearby monastic school.
Township administrator U Hnin Aung said there is a real possibility of violence if local authorities move in to evict the squatters.
“We have seen the people who live there are gathering knives. They said that if somebody gets in their way, they will fight,” he said on February 12.
Department figures show there are about 2500 illegal homes in the ward. Most of the more than 7900 residents have arrived in the past five years; only 592 homes were registered during the 2008 referendum.
U Hnin Aung said the owners of the illegal homes had arrived in the ward in the hope of securing land compensation. “They’ve come from the conflict in Rakhine State, from areas of Kayan and Thongwa
[townships in Yangon Region] where the riverbank has collapsed, from areas affected by Cyclone Nargis and from upper Myanmar,” he said.
However, he also agreed that the squatters had nowhere else to go.
“They stay here taking whatever jobs they can. They depend on this place and will be in big trouble if they are removed,” he said.
Concerned about the possibility of a forced eviction, residents have established units of young men to patrol the area at night. Most of the residents have already packed up their belongings so they can make a quick getaway if the officials arrive.
But they have no idea where they will run to. “I have no home to return to,” said Daw Mya Tha, who moved to No 67 ward after her home in the Rakhine State capital Sittwe was destroyed in an outbreak of violence in 2012. “Where can I go?”
Some are hopeful that the impending conflict can be avoided through negotiation. Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Dagon Seikkan U Myo Aung, from the National League for Democracy, said he had asked the government for discussions on the issue and also raised it in the parliament but received no response.
He suggested that township officials follow the lead of nearby No 61 ward, where illegal residents were recently evicted but given a 600-square-foot piece of land in 138 ward and K200,000 as compensation.
“It is not against the law to move the squatters but these people will be homeless and in trouble if that happens,” he said. “The government should take care of this issue carefully and make alternative plans. It is inappropriate to act in this way.”
Source: Myanmar Times
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