More than 200 squatted houses in Mandalay’s PyigyiTakhon Township were demolished on 8 June under the Military Council’s squatter clearance plan for the city.

The squatters only received a day’s notice that their homes were going to be destroyed.

“Nearly 300 houses were destroyed by bulldozers helped by junta soldiers. About 2,000 more houses are due to be destroyed. On 7 June they [the Military Council] went through the ward announcing on a loudspeaker that every house would be demolished”, a squatter told Mizzima.

He also said that some of the people living in houses that were demolished had bought their houses and land and had been living there for almost a decade.

Another local said: “People who can afford to rent another house are fine, but some people have nowhere to live and have no money so they are staying illegally in the demolished houses. Renting a house is too expensive for some, so they are sleeping on the street.”

The Mandalay City Development Committee is demolishing squats in Chanmyathazi and PyigyiTakhon Townships, according to locals.

The Military Council has been removing squats in Mandalay since January of this year.

On 4 June, junta soldiers carrying out squat clearances on the corner of Mandalay’s 73rd and 116th street were shot at and wounded by the Generation Z Power- GZP (Mandalay) guerrilla group.