Government forcibly evicts families from apartments

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 20:53 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Ministry of Industry (1) forcibly evicted families from a three-storey apartment block at 33rd Street in Kyauktada Township in Rangoon on Tuesday, according to area residents.

The apartment block was confiscated from Indian residents in Burma in 1963 when the Burma Socialist Programme Party ruled Burma and allocated it to the employees of the Ministry of Industry (1).

An owner of a flat in the apartment block said on the condition of anonymity that Htin Kyaw, a factory manager from Ministry of Industry (1), ordered the families evicted. The apartment block has a total of 12 rooms.

There are two elderly patients in the apartments, said a resident. ‘Htin Kyaw evicted the residents and the chairman of the Township Peace and Development Council ignored the incident’, he said.

On January 13, the Ministry of Industry (1) sent official letters to the families ordering them to leave the building before January 19.

On Tuesday morning, several trucks and factory workers arrived to carry off the residents’ belongings.

On Monday afternoon, a representative of each apartment, the authorities of the ministry and the chief officer of Military Division (4) and the chairman of the Township Peace and Development Council tried to negotiate the issue.

In the meeting, the authorities told apartment owners to show their official residence permit to live in the flats. The flat owners replied that if the Ministry of Industry (1) prosecuted them, they would go to court, according to a resident.

An editor in Rangoon told Mizzima that the people who live in the apartment block have residence permits.

‘Most of them are employees of the Ministry of Industry (1)’, he said. ‘Before they lived in the building, they had to apply for a residence permit. I heard that they were ordered to leave the building about one year ago. Some employees from the ministry resold their flats to other people’.

On Tuesday morning, the chief officer of Military Division (4) arrived at the building again and negotiated between the ministry and the flat owners. A spokesperson from the Kyauktada Police Station told Mizzima that the chief officer of Military Division (4) talked with Htin Kyaw and made a decision to evict the families from the building.

Before 5 p.m., four families were moving their belongings, and eight families remained in their apartment.

A flat owner said that the apartment block would be sealed off at 5 p.m.