The Wire

The largest multinational military exercise to take place in Asia this year is underway in Cambodia. The Global Peace Operations Initiative will bring together more than 1,000 personnel from 23 nations across the Asia Pacific in a display of military prowess. But the institution hosting the event, the Cambodian armed forces, stand accused of grave human rights abuses and directing violent organized crime, including illegal logging on an industrial scale. Human rights groups are beginning to question the relationships Western armies, such as Australia’s, have with militaries accused of human rights abuses in the Asian region.