Dozens of houses in Thandwe Twsp village removed by junta

By DMG 28 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
28 September 2022, Thandwe

The Myanmar military ordered the removal of some 70 houses from Jaing Thar Village in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township on Wednesday, saying the village was built on military-owned land.

Departmental personnel were involved, alongside Myanmar military soldiers, in removing the houses from the village, located about 27 miles from Thandwe town, according to village administrator U Ko Lay.

“Some 40 houses have been demolished,” he told DMG at around noon.

The mass demolition came after the military had issued three eviction notices. Following the third notice, villagers promised to move after the rainy season was over. The military, however, moved forward with forcibly removing their houses despite the request.

“It is weeks away from the rainy season ending,” said an affected villager. “We can’t imagine what to do with children and elderly persons when it rains in the new place.”

They will reportedly be given land plots near Thit Kauk Village, some two miles from Jaing Thar Village, as compensation. The affected villagers, however, are unhappy that they are not to receive compensation for their demolished houses.

Following the removal of their houses, some villagers have moved to land plots near Thit Kauk Village, while others have moved to their relatives’ homes.

“Though they give land plots, they don’t give any money. We need money to build a house on the land plots compensated by them. It is not easy to build a house at this time, when commodity prices are soaring. I want the government [Myanmar’s military regime] to have sympathy toward people,” said another villager.

Most residents of Jaing Thar Village engage in fishing as their main source of livelihood.

A group of people established a settlement on then-forested land in 1976 that later became Jaing Thar Village. The land was seized by the Navy in 1996, but for more than two decades, villagers had still been allowed to reside in the village with the Navy charging a yearly tax of 500 kyats per house.