Rathidaung: The Burmese military junta has destroyed Arakanese business ventures employing many tactics aiming to keep Arakan state underdeveloped, said a shrimp farm owner in Rathidaung.
"The authorities told us at all meetings as well as through newspapers and radio that the regime had encouraged Arakanese businessmen to go in for more business ventures in the state to develop it, but practically speaking the government has been destroying our state business in more than one way," he added.
The shrimp farmer spoke to Narinjara News over the telephone after a high level government team proposed during a visit last week that Arakanese businessmen invest and work in the shrimp business in Arakan.
"Ironically, the major business in our state is the shrimp industry, and the state's income from shrimp enterprises is big, but we have not been able to work in the industry freely. In the last few years, 2,000 acres of shrimp farms in our township were confiscated by the Burmese Army," he said.
The shrimp farmer is from Rathidaung Township, 20 miles north of the state capital Sittwe. The Burmese Army confiscated 2,000 acres of shrimp farms from locals in Rathidaung without any justification.
He added, "Battalion 537 and 538 worked at least two years on the shrimp farms after confiscation but the army was unable to continue shrimp husbandry at the farms. So now the army has abandoned the shrimp farms."
A source in Rathidaung said that many shrimp farms have become fallow after being abandoned by the army. Even though they are unable to maintain the farms, the army has not returned the shrimp farms to their original owners for cultivation.
"The shrimp enterprise in our state is lucrative and many people including workers and shopkeepers were able to earn high incomes from the business in the past, but the Burmese authorities have killed the business in Arakan State. Every Arakanese understands what the authority's true intent is in destroying the shrimp business in Arakan," the shrimp farmer said.
A team of high officials led by Senior General Maung Aye visited Arakan State last week and urged Arakanese businessmen at several meetings to promote the shrimp industry in order to get foreign currency along the lines of other agriculture and husbandry projects. However, many shrimp farm owners throughout Arakan State are suffering from the confiscation and their shrimp farms being abandoned by local army battalions.
