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Cambodia 'shocked' by 'disrespectful' US aid cut, says democracy intact
Cambodia 'shocked' by 'disrespectful' US aid cut, says democracy intact
28/2/18
 |
| Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen |
The United States has cut military support and other aid programs for Cambodia government over democratic 'setbacks'.
Cambodia said on Wednesday it
was saddened and shocked by a “disrespectful” U.S. decision to rein back aid
programs because of perceived democratic setbacks and defended its record on
democracy.
The White House said on Tuesday it was suspending or
curtailing several Treasury, USAID and military assistance programs that support
Cambodia’s military, taxation department and local authorities - all of which,
it said, shared blame for recent instability.
A Cambodian court on Tuesday ordered the seizure of the
headquarters of the main opposition party, pending the payment of damages to
Prime Minister Hun Sen, the latest blow to the dissolved opposition Cambodia
National Rescue Party.
Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia
for more than 30 years, has forced the closure of an English-language newspaper
and jailed government critics, including opposition leader Kem Sokha, whom he
has accused of conspiring with the United States to overthrow him.
Rights groups and Western nations have decried the
crackdown on the opposition ahead of a general election set for July 29.
“Besides being saddened
and shocked over the decision by the friendly nation over development
assistance, Cambodia
is proud to maintain and continue democracy with energy,” government spokesman
Phay Siphan told Reuters on Wednesday.
Phay Siphan called the aid cut “disrespectful” and
“dishonest” as it builds democracy.
“Democracy belongs to the people, not to the party that is
already dissolved,” he said. “Cambodia
had a bitter experience during the interventions of the United States
and Western nations, which tried to set up democracy between 1970 and 1975, and
they failed,” he said.
Hun Sen has never forgiven the United
States for dropping bombs on Cambodia during the Vietnam War,
which ended in 1975. Cambodia
ranks among the world’s nations most littered with unexploded ordnance, says
the Mines Advisory Group, which helps find and destroy unexploded devices that
kill or injure an average of two Cambodians every week.
The White House said that Washington
had spent more than $1 billion in support for Cambodia and that assistance in
health, agriculture and mine-clearing will continue.
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