Fire Department threatens to remove several shops from Sittwe ward

By DMG 08 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 February 2022, Sittwe

The local Fire Services Department on February 6 distributed leaflets foreshadowing the removal of about 20 shops from a market in Mingan ward’s Block 8, in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, according to the shop owners.

The shopkeepers were instructed to remove their shops, with a letter of warning claiming that they had been built inside the compound of Mingan fire station.

“The warning letter said the shops were built in the compound of Mingan fire station so they must be removed. The township Fire Services Department alleges that we are squatters. We have been living on this land for more than 20 years, so it is not a site for squatters,” Ma Saw Mra Thandar, a resident living near the market, told DMG.

According to the letter, the targeted houses and shops were built on 1.45 acres of land in Sittwe Township owned by the Mingan fire station under the Fire Services Department, which is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs. They must be removed as soon as possible, and no later than the end of this month, the leaflets warn. Failure to remove homes or shops will result in legal action, the warning letter adds.

Ma Saw Mra Thandar said she would like to receive compensation at current market prices for the land, if its occupants must remove their homes or shops near the fire department.

“We would like to appeal to the relevant authorities to take our grievances into consideration. We have to rely on this market to support our family. How do we expect the shops to be demolished? I want the government to compensate for a place where we can work and earn a living,” said Daw Khin May, an affected grocery store owner.

The economic malaise impacting much of Myanmar in the wake of the military coup on February 1, 2021, makes the commercial displacement that much harder for those impacted in Mingan ward.

“It is unfortunate that we have to remove the shops,” said Daw Khin Naing Kyi, a dried fish vendor. “It is not easy to demolish a shop and rebuild it when things are not going well. I have been selling here for over 20 years. Being the grassroots, we depend on this shop to support our family.”

DMG contacted U Kyaw Lin, a deputy commander from the township Fire Services Brigade about the matter, and he said that depending on the extent of the land owned by the fire station, squatters would be removed and shopkeepers would be negotiated with.

“Homes and shops on the land owned by the fire station must be removed. I cannot say exactly when they [shopkeepers] will be removed and we are negotiating with them socially. The main thing is that we ask the shop owners to move out of the area that they do not own,” he told DMG.

The market in Mingan Block 8 has existed for more than three decades, and has more than 30 shops.