U.S. expands counterterrorism assistance in Cambodia in spite of human rights concerns

By Craig Whitlock

The Pentagon is expanding counterterrorism assistance to unlikely corners of the globe as part of a strategy to deploy elite Special Operations forces as advisers to countries far from al-Qaeda’s strongholds in the Middle East and North Africa.Much of the new assistance is being directed toward countries in Asia and has been fueled by the Obama administration’s strategic “pivot” to the region. In Cambodia, for example, the Defense Department is training a counterterrorism battalion even though the nation has not faced a serious militant threat in nearly a decade.

The training has persisted despite concerns about the human rights record of Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler, former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen, who in the past has relied on his military to execute and intimidate political opponents.

President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are scheduled to make rare visits to Cambodia this week and next to attend a regional summit. Panetta, who is to arrive Friday, is slated to have a one-on-one meeting with Tea Banh, Cambodia’s defense minister.

Panetta’s aides said he would raise human rights concerns during the session.

The decision to embrace Cambodia has prompted criticism from human rights groups and several U.S. lawmakers, who accuse the Obama administration of pursuing closer military and diplomatic ties with countries in China’s back yard at the expense of democratic reforms.

“We’ve been yelling at the White House for a month and a half that [Obama] shouldn’t go because the human rights situation in Cambodia is so bad,” said John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. This week, the group issued a report documenting a long list of unsolved political killings in Cambodia.

The White House is also hearing complaints about Obama’s decision to become the first U.S. president to visit Burma, an isolated country controlled for decades by a repressive military. In recent months, Burmese rulers have allowed limited free elections and released political prisoners, but their commitment to democratic reform remains uncertain.

U.S. military leaders said they are eager to bolster relationships with countries across Asia, even those with checkered human rights records, but are careful to do so in a way that encourages reforms and does not ignore abuses.

Last month, Lt. Gen. Francis J. Wiercinski, the commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, became the first American military officer in a quarter-century to visit Burma. He later said in an interview that the Pentagon would like to gradually build a relationship with the Burmese military, but only if it meets strict human rights criteria established by Congress, the White House and the State Department.

“They set the tone for what we can do and when we can do it,” Wiercinski said. “I follow the law.”

The assistance to Cambodia comes as the Pentagon, with little public notice, has deployed teams of Special Operations forces to train counterterrorism and special-warfare forces in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia, despite concerns about human rights abuses in those countries. The U.S. military resumed relations in 2010 with Indonesia’s special forces, a group accused of atrocities during the country’s years of authoritarianism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-expands-counterterrorism-assistance-in-cambodia-in-spite-of-human-rights-concerns/2012/11/15/f2df3de8-2e59-11e2-abff-7d780620a97a_story.html

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