IN AN office on the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, an official in charge of fisheries points to a pile of documents. Here, he explains, is a five-year plan to modernise fish-farming in Rakhine—or rather, what is left of it. After a bout of violence last year, foreign donors withdrew, the budget was revised and the plan was whittled down to a year; $9m in investment, equivalent to a tenth of the state budget, went up in smoke. The official is not sure the plan will proceed at all. He admits he never really believed it would anyway. Such is the mood in Rakhine, a state racked by years of conflict between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims that has descended into a state-led assault on the Rohingyas.
When Aung San Suu Kyi took control of Myanmar’s government last year after 50 years of military rule, Rakhine state was already seething. Riots in 2012, in which the authorities sided...Continue reading
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