Myanmar

Myanmar has a wide variety of ethnic and religious groups. Some ethnic minorities live an isolated existence around the mountainous areas.

Due to its strategic position between China and India, the territory of Myanmar was disputed during the Cold War. Today it is geographically speaking at the crossroads of the region's drugs trafficking routes, which contributes to the country's instability.

The international community is divided over whether or not to support the current regime in its fight against drugs trafficking regardless of its repression of ethnic minority groups and denunciations of its human rights violations. Foreign investors have withdrawn from the country.

Half of the population lives below the poverty line and the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Myanmar 190 out of 191 in terms of its public sanitation. The literacy rate is one of the lowest in the world.

The Wa State United Army, linked to drugs trafficking, had 20,000 troops, more than half of them children under 12 years of age.

At least a million Myanmarese have AIDS and infant mortality is estimated at 33%.