YANGON—Police arrested four men and one woman on Monday morning for resisting the eviction of five villages on Ministry of Construction-owned land near a tollgate on the Yangon-Naypyitaw Highway in Hlegu Township.
In the first forced eviction by the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government, nearly 200 police troops and 700 hired civilian reinforcements armed with clubs, swords and axes were deployed Monday morning to clear nearly 20,000 houses.
Police Brig-Gen Mya Win, who was on the ground, told The Irrawaddy that anyone hostile to authorities would be arrested. A number of police vans were parked beside the highway.
According to the director general of the Housing Department, U Yu Khaing, the area is owned by the government and slated for development by the Housing Department and the Ministry of Construction.
“We can’t say exactly when the development will be started, but it will begin soon after eviction and demolition,” he said.
The area was first bulldozed in 2015 to evict squatters.
