Myanmar authorities in Magway have informed residents that they must move their homes from the vicinity of the air force base by May 20 under the pretext of land invasion, locals said on Friday.
Residents said city officials first notified about 100 families in the city The Aung Zayar district adjacent to the base on March 25 to relocate, and then called a town hall meeting five days later and told them to move by May 20.
Most of the affected residents are rickshaw drivers, carpenters and bricklayers who have been living there for the past 15 years in small houses and two-story shacks, with the exception of about 10 large houses, residents said. Retired military sergeants and 15 other veterans also live there, as well as parents whose children are stationed on the base.
“Because of the order, they are now facing housing issues,” said a friend of a resident who must move. “They have built their houses there, but now they have to tear them down and move out.”
The notice said that houses encroached on roads, causing traffic jams, were prone to fire, and that the layout of the area did not conform to the characteristics of the city. Municipal authorities said they would take legal action against residents who defy the order.
The board has cited land encroachment to clear neighborhoods in other areas of the country, including Yangon’s Mingaladon Township, where more than 4,000 buildings on more than 500 acres of land were removed. It also removed houses in three Mandalay townships for the same reason.
Some residents say the junta is forcing them to act to persecute ordinary citizens, who have largely opposed the military regime following the February 2021 coup, in which the national army seized power from the elected government. and unleashed a torrent of violence against the peaceful protesters.
“At such a difficult time as now, when people are facing various hardships and livelihood problems after the military coup, forcing people to move from their hard-earned homes has put a further burden on the existing despair in their lives.” , said.
“They will have to find new land and build new houses that will cost a lot of money,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s another act of the military junta to torture people even more.”
door to door inspections
Other residents believe Myanmar’s ruling military junta is behind the move, fearing that the Magway base could be the next target for the anti-regime Popular Defense Forces after opposition fighters launched rocket-propelled grenades. rockets hit the Mingaladon airbase in the commercial city of Yangon on April 6.
“As far as I know, the junta forced them to withdraw because they feared that the resistance forces would launch rocket attacks on the air force base from the neighborhood, which has happened repeatedly lately,” said a local who refused to be identified. fearing for his safety.
The People’s Defense Forces have fired missiles at Magway Air Force Base more than twice in 2021, in one case hitting a weapons storage facility, it said.
Radio Free Asia was unable to reach the junta’s spokesman in the Magway region for comment, though it previously said the military council was handling invasion issues that previous governments avoided because it was trying to ensure law and order.
The army tightened security in Yangon’s Mingaladon township on Friday after rocket attack on the base during which some junta members were injured and an aviation fuel tank and the aviation headquarters building were hit and damaged, local sources said. RFA has not been able to confirm this.
Soldiers are blocking and checking the roads in and out of the bases, near the Mingaladon airport and opposite the main market, said a resident who declined to be named out of fear for his safety.
Other Mingaladon Township residents said troops and district administrators have been conducting door-to-door inspections in some neighborhoods.
Translated by Myo Min Aung for FRG Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.
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