The policeman at the barricade shuffles nervously as he explains a policy he seems reluctant to reside over: were Rohingya to enter downtown Sittwe, he says, they would likely face attack from Rakhine. Such is level of vitriol and resentment between the two communities now that the danger is real. With no government-led efforts to rebuild inter-communal harmony, animosities have festered and hardened. Elsewhere in the state, particularly in the northern towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, where Rohingya outnumber Rakhine, the latter have taken on a newfound wariness of their own about security.