Rathidaung: The Burmese military government has destroyed Arakanese businesses with many tactics aiming to undeveloped the state of Arakan, said a shrimp farm owner from Rathidaung.

He said, "The authority told us at all meetings as well as through newspapers and radio that the government had encouraged Arakanese businessmen to do more business ventures in the state to develop it, but practically speaking the government has been destroying our state business in many ways."

The shrimp farmer spoke with Narinjara News over the phone after a high government team proposed during a visit last week that Arakanese businessmen invest and work in the shrimp business in Arakan.

"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 the shrimp husbandry at the farms. So now the army has abandoned the shrimp farms."

A source from Rathidaung said that many shrimp farms have fallen 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 authority has 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 abandonment of their shrimp farms by local army battalions.

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