one reason was that pakistan was a western ally at the time and at govt level it was mostly hushed up. US whole-heartedly supported pakistan during the events,
against the advices of their envoy at dhaka.
still, there were spontaneous reactions from people around the world e.g george harrison did a concert to raise money and spread awareness for the people of bangladesh.
Quote:
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The Concert For Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00 p.m. on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Organized for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh) after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and during the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities and Bangladesh Liberation War, the event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. It featured an all-star supergroup of performers that included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, and Ringo Starr.
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time magazine archives of the time will give you an idea, it's available online.
some facts :
'71 was the largest incidence of genocide since the second world war and competes with the nazi and the rwandan one as one of the worst incidences of genocides in world history.
it created close to 10 million refugees who fled to india of the total population of 75 million.
it also had the highest ever incidences of crimes against women in world history.
Quote:
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The Guinness Book of Records lists the Bangladesh Genocide as one of the top 5 genocides in the 20th century.
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(it uses official figures which are supposed to be less than actual ones)
links :
http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/
http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html