reduce financial aid to Cambodia until human rights issues become centerpiece of prime minister Hun Sen’s govt.

The US has provided more than $800 million to Cambodia for development (since 1992). Yet, how much of this aid has really gone to lift the poor? Cambodia continues to face more and frequent cases of human rights abuses that has resulted in countless forced eviction of poor people’s homes, land grabs, killings of labor and environmental activists who speak up, threatening and jailing of journalists and other who speak out for the poor and voiceless. These and other serious abuses have gone unpunished. The authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen's rule over more than two decades only gets stronger as his govt relies more on China—where human rights isn’t a priority. The US govt must act more forcefully to put human rights a priority with any aid it gives Cambodia.