Municipal authorities act against would-be squatters in Sittwe ward

By DMG 28 Apr 2022

DMG Newsroom
28 April 2022, Sittwe 

Sittwe municipal and ward authorities have prevented people from squatting on land west of Sittwe Hotel in the Arakan State capital’s West Sanpya ward. 

A number of people including Arakanese and Muslims had partitioned the land on April 27, dividing it into hundreds of square plots usings posts as markers. Sittwe municipal authorities and ward administrative personnel removed those posts the following day. 

“They fled when we went there. There might be around 200 land plots marked with posts and ropes. They even marked land plots in water,” said a municipal official who did not want to be named. 

According to hawkers at the nearby beach, those who marked off the land are from Mingan ward and other parts of the city. A municipal official said the city did not open a case because the identities of the alleged trespassers were not known. 

The attempted occupation of the land was indicative of poor law enforcement in Sittwe, said senior citizen U Maung Thar Sein. 

“People have acquired land in Narzi village in a similar way. So, people try to occupy vacant land. Some departments do not want to attract trouble and thus avoid engaging with them. So, money-grubbers try to squat when they see vacant land,” he said. 

Several people squatted in Sittwe’s Set Yone Su ward, also known as Narzi village, after many houses there were torched during the intercommunal conflicts of 2012. Some of the squatters subsequently sold land plots to third parties. 

Last month, hundreds of people who the government described as squatters were evicted from a cemetery and an area owned by Myanmar Railways in Sittwe. Many of the evictees have argued that they were not squatters, and had paid for the land plots that they occupied.