This combination of satellite images shows the village of Zone Kar Yar on Dec. 20, 2017, left, and Feb. 13, 2018, right. Predominantly Rohingya villages and hamlets have been completely leveled by authorities in recent weeks. (DigitalGlobe via Associated Press)

Scenes of the violent military crackdown in Burma’s Rakhine state, a restive area that for decades has been the site of ethnic strife, have become familiar since the violence erupted in August: plumes of smoke rising in the distance, thousands of Rohingya Muslims escaping to Bangladesh on foot, entire villages standing empty.

Now the Burmese government is hoping to paint a different picture.

Under de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the government has pushed the nation’s most powerful business executives, many of them previously under U.S. sanctions, to pump millions of dollars into infrastructure projects, and tapped others to start Rakhine-
focused businesses, all while soliciting international donors.

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