All houses of squatters occupied on the left / right side of the Yangon-Pathein Road Hlaingthaya (East) Township, Yangon Region, have been ordered to be demolished by October 28, leaving tens of thousands of residents homeless.
The township administration body has been announcing the demolition of the squatters' houses through loudspeakers since October 28 at around 6 am, and a large number of people are ready to carry out the demolition work. The authorities temporarily blocked both of Bayintnaung Bridge No. 1 and 2, which are used by the residents to come to Hlaingthaya, starting from 7 am, according to the occupants.
A 51-year-old woman lived near Ahsintmyint bus stop on the Yangon-Pathein road said, “I was given a piece of paper to demolish my house. If I don’t demolish my home, they will demolish it using backhoe. They have been announcing it since morning. There are people in uniforms wore in construction site. I have nowhere to live. I demolished my house. It cost me K50,000 to rent a place to live. Now I don't even have money to rent a car to carry my belongings. It made me sad to say about it. It would be nice to have a place to live. I'm happy to have money to rent a car to carry my belongings. If we don’t demolish the houses today, they will demolish them.”
A resident lived on the roadside of Yangon-Pathein road in front of Hlaingthaya Zone 4 said that the men called to demolish the houses would demolish them if they did not demolish them themselves.
Daw Aye Chan (not her real name), who lives on the roadside of Yangon-Pathein Road in front of Hlaingthaya Zone 4, said, “I have no money to rent a house. When people with a little money went to rent a room at a hostel, they were told that the squatters shouldn’t have been accepted. We don't know where to live. I don’t know where to go. I have been living here since 2008 after cyclone Nargis. I also have slips. They didn't say anything to the people who got the slips. I want to live here if I can live. We are old. We don’t earn much money. We have to look for something to eat every day with difficulty. We have no money to move from here. Now we demolish our home and piled our belongings here. If we make them demolish our house, we have to pay them K50,000. They will not give anything back to us.”
A 65-year-old Daw Hnin (not her real name), who lives on the roadside of Yangon-Pathein Road in front of Hlaingthaya Zone 4, said, “They told us to move away from here this morning through loudspeakers. We have to demolish it or we will be taken action. We were scared and had to demolish our house. I am a widow. We are in trouble. I have not eaten breakfast yet. I have been looking for a place to stay since I was told to move away. I am still searching a place to live. I cannot afford the rent. We don't even get transportation costs.”
The squatters’ houses occupied on the left / right side of Yangon-Pathein Road from Bayintnaung Bridge to Dagon Ayar highway station in Hlaingthaya Industrial Zone 2, 3 and 4 have been ordered to demolish. There are at least more than 5,000 squatters’ houses and a population of over tens of thousands may live there but the exact number of squatters cannot be known, according to the occupants.
For the cleanliness of Yangon city, the relevant departments are working together to demolish the squatter buildings and accumulated materials on Yangon-Pathein Road in accordance with the law. As a result, invaded buildings and the stockpile must be disposed of within a week of receiving the notice, according to a letter sent to the squatters on October 15 by the Office of the Head of Township Development Administration.
