PrintAugust 18, 2013
U.S. Aid to Cambodia's Corrupt Military
The "he said, she said" dispute over the claim that the Cambodian regime suspended or cancelled international military cooperation with the U.S. offers an ideal opportunity for the Obama administration to right a wrong-headed policy of providing aid to a corrupt and politicized military implicated in brutal human rights abuses.
Cambodia's military openly and illegally campaigned for former Khmer Rouge commander Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People's Party, a repressive communist kleptocracy, and created an atmosphere of voter intimidation in the recent July 28th elections marred by fraud according to Human Rights Watch.
According to the Pnomh Penh Post, last April, Cambodia's pre-eminent environment activist, Chut Wutty was shot dead by military policemen protecting an illegal logging concession. Three weeks after Wutty's murder, soldiers hired to protect the economic concession of a company murdered a 14-year-old girl. In September, Cambodian investigative...(Read Full Article)
