Last year, a Malteser International staff member removed a Buddhist flag from the agency’s office building in Sittwe, Rakhine State’s capital city. Malteser claimed the act was done to show the group’s neutrality in the ethnic conflict dividing the state on Myanmar’s western coast.
The Buddhists who comprise the majority of the population in Rakhine State, however, saw it as a sign of disrespect, resulting in a surge of violence against international aid workers in Sittwe.
“It takes very little to spark violence in a conflict-affected area,” Cesar Umali Jr., a consultant who was part of the World Bank’s national community-driven development project in Myanmar, the first project by the International Development Association in the country in 25 years, said in an interview with Devex. “The problem is, if you’re too careful, then you can’t do anything.”