Myanmar, formerly Burma, one of the world’s most corrupt nations, elected a new leader last year, Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi, who ran on promises of ethnic reconciliation. Myanmar has a population of 53 million people, one million of whom belong to an Islamic ethnic minority group known as Rohingyas. They are often viewed as intruders from Bangladesh, a country which does not recognize them as citizens. Many Rohingyas in Myanmar have been killed recently and estimates are that 30,000 have fled the country since October, a time that has been plagued with increasingly frightening rhetoric from many sources in Myanmar which promises ethnic cleansing and genocide. As refugees cross into Bangladesh they receive harsh treatment and are often turned back. This has the potential to develop into a major human rights crisis and must be stopped before it occurs. Countries, such as China, have offered support as a large scale conflict in Myanmar would be damaging to Chinese economic interests in the region and along their borders, however, that support is currently only placement of troops along Chinese borders and very limited economic assistance. Throughout the past decades, numerous countries have stood by while genocides occurred in Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Darfur region, without offering more than nominal support and verbal condemnation. The world as a whole must be willing to take more drastic measures if they ever wish to stop the increasing prevalence of genocides.
