Few imagined Myanmar would embrace democracy when the U.S. began its historic engagement with the military regime. The country’s rapid changes were lauded by visiting Western leaders, and the nation’s president was hailed as a hero. But spasms of spreading, communal violence show the reform path is bumpier that expected and have taken the sheen off a foreign policy success of the Obama administration’s first term.

While Washington says the country’s overall direction is still positive, some experts worry Myanmar risks backsliding toward military rule that ended two years ago.

In the past two weeks, violence between Buddhists and Muslims has left dozens dead. Thousands of refugees of an earlier spate of sectarian bloodletting are fleeing on rickety boats. And in a key concern to U.S. policymakers, the country’s murky military ties with North Korea continue.

Washington has been at the forefront of international efforts to encourage the country also known as Burma to open up to the world and ease controls on its 60 million people. Thursday marks the anniversary of the historic U.S. announcement that it was normalizing diplomatic relations — the first in a series of diplomatic rewards in response to reforms. That culminated in the suspension of economic sanctions and in November, the first visit to Myanmar by a U.S. president.

The benefits of reforms have been clear. President Thein Sein‘s government has released hundreds of political prisoners, eased restrictions on the press and freedom of assembly and brokered cease-fires with most of the nation’s ethnic insurgencies. After years of house arrest, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been elected to parliament, which is performing its role with vigor.

But the rapid pace of change has also been accompanied by chaos, as ugly sectarian tensions have surfaced.

Human rights groups and a U.N. envoy have criticized the Myanmar government‘s failure to prevent attacks mostly on minority Muslims by majority Buddhists. Sectarian violence in western Rakhine state last year killed hundreds and drove more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims from their homes, intensifying long-running persecution of the stateless minority group. In an ominous development, Muslim-Buddhist violence spread in March to central Myanmar, killing dozens more.

The government‘s emergency response has been slow and some fear the unrest could spiral.

“If the new government and opposition can’t fashion an effective response to this violence that brings justice and accountability, then it seems likely …read more

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