Facing eviction, Sittwe beach eateries’ petition seeks livelihood consideration 

By Admin 19 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
19 August 2023, Sittwe

The Arakan State military council has not yet responded to a petition from eateries along the main beach in the Arakan State capital Sittwe who were told by the township municipal committee to vacate by August 26.

The municipal committee has ordered eatery owners to vacate, saying they are squatting on the beach by building permanent structures there without permission. A notice issued on August 13 warned that the shops would be bulldozed if their owners fail to remove them by the August 26 deadline, and that legal action would be taken against noncompliant shop owners.

Shop owners on August 14 submitted a petition addressed to junta-appointed Arakan State chief minister U Htein Lin, and the chief of the Myanmar military’s Western Command Major-General Htein Latt Oo.

The eatery owners have asked the municipality to arrange an alternative location for them as having to remove their shops from the beach will deal a major, potentially debilitating blow to their bottom lines.

“We left the petition at the office of the Arakan State military council, and also left copies at government departments including the municipal department. We have not yet received any response so far,” said one of the affected eatery owners, U Than Kyaw Htay.

U Kyaw Moe, deputy director of the Sittwe municipality, told DMG that the shops in question are a blight on the city’s appearance, and thus were instructed to vacate the premises in line with municipal law.

The allegedly squatting eatery owners, however, claim that their shops were opened at the urging of former Arakan State chief minister U Maung Maung Oo of the previous U Thein Sein government, who had hoped that such eateries would attract more visitors to the beach.

“We haven’t received any reply [to the petition], and we don’t know what to do,” said eatery owner Ma Thin Thin Shwe.