Sanctions by the US government have been pinching the Burmese military junta. Two shrimp product factories owned by relatives of Burmese military government officials in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, shut down recently after further US government imposed sanctions on Burma, said one worker who was employed there.

"The factories are Shwe Tharawan and Shwe Yamon, both shrimp product factories, located beside the Satro Kya Creek in Sittwe. Local Arakanese people called the factories Ah Ai Khan," he said.

"Ah Ai Kan" translated literally into English means, "frozen-keeping room".

The two factories were owned by relatives of Burmese military regime officials and the Shwe Tharawan factory was reportedly owned by the son of General Shwe Mann, the third most powerful man in Burma.

The factories were closed down after a Singapore company stopped buying shrimps from the factory for imports.

"I heard that the Singapore Company faced a problem transferring money from Singapore to Burma after the US-government imposed sanctions on Burma. The company reportedly stopped buying due to a problem with the banking system," the worker said.

A source from Sittwe said, the Shwe Tharawan factory has been transferred by General Shwe Mann's son to the government fishery department in Sittwe after the factory was closed down.

The worker said that 200 employees in the two factories were left jobless after the closures, but the owners of the factories had already paid three months' advance salary to the workers.