Tens of Thousands in Rangoon Face Eviction Deadline

14 February 2014

Tens of thousands of impoverished residents of Rangoon’s Dagon Seikkan Township are facing forced eviction after authorities declared that they were illegal squatters and have to leave the area by Sunday, DVB reports. Residents living in Wards 61, 67 and 93 have been told their homes were built illegally on vacant land and will now be bulldozed, those who oppose the eviction could be charged under Article 21 of the 1989 Lower Burma Town and Village Land Act and face imprisonment. “The mass eviction is ordered by the government so there’s nothing else we can do,” said Hla Kyi, Administrator for Ward-93.