(Staff article from the FRONTIER MYANMAR on 10 March 2021)
Police and soldiers evicted more than 1,000 Myanma
Railways staff from their state-owned homes today for participating in the
Civil Disobedience Movement, which has seen workers across government refuse to
attend work in order to topple the military.
Hundreds of police and soldiers raided the staff housing compound in Yangon’s Tarmwe Township at about 6am and for much of the morning blocked all exits and entrances to and from the compound, raising fears among residents of imminent violence.
Police initially
arrested three locomotive drivers but by noon began forcibly evicting everyone,
shouting that their homes would be bulldozed and they and their families would
be shot and killed if they refused to leave.
“They have a
list of people in the CDM who [they are] going to arrest, but if they want to
arrest people in this compound who support the CDM, we will all be arrested,” a
railway employee and compound resident told Frontier this morning, before it
became clear the residents would all be evicted. “There is no one here who
doesn’t support the CDM.”
About 1,000
Myanma Railways personnel and their families lived at the compound, which
adjoins the Ma Hlwa Gone railway station, and have been participating in the
CDM since February 8. One resident told Frontier many of them have nowhere to
go, and are worried about keeping children and elder relatives that live with
them safe.
Before the
eviction orders, Frontier witnessed many residents fleeing the compound with
their belongings hastily packed into plastic bin bags, fearing they’d either be
arrested or forced to quit the CDM and return to work. Police and soldiers who
stormed the housing compound confiscated rice and other goods that had been
donated by the public for railway staff taking part in the CDM.
One resident said that shortly after the raid began about 50 police had entered the compound from the east, before the main entrance on the western side was blocked by army trucks and a large number of soldiers. At about 11:30am, another 40 police arrived at the compound in six vehicles, and by late morning a total of 15 military vehicles, five police cars, and hundreds of police and soldiers had surrounded the compound and blocked all exits.
“It means that
we are locked in,” the resident said this morning. “I think we are in for a bad
situation tonight. The problem is there is no way out. I have only two choices:
be quiet or fight back.”
The raid at Ma
Hlwa Gone follows a series of failed attempts by the Tatmadaw to coerce
striking railway personnel into returning to work. In Mandalay on February 17,
soldiers tried to force rail workers to return to work at gunpoint but failed. Nationally,
an estimated 90 percent of the 30,000 Myanmar Railways employees have joined
the movement, halting train transit across the country since early February.
Striking workers
have been supported by public donations of food and money that volunteers have
helped distribute to personnel at all levels. “Most of the donations go to the
big railway workshops such as those at Ma Hlwa Gone and Insein [in northern
Yangon]. People don’t notice the other railways staff – the people who check
tickets and maintain the tracks – so we are making sure the donations also help
them,” said U Htay Hla, a deputy general manager of Myanma Railways’ railbus
engine and maintenance department, who has gone into hiding from the Tatmadaw.
Despite threats
to not pay striking workers, the military administration paid the February
salaries to striking Myanma Railways staff in the beginning of March.
