WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading human rights group on Tuesday urged Washington to cancel a U.S. visa granted to Cambodia's police chief to attend counter-terrorism talks because of questions about his past.
Hok Lundy, Cambodia's top police officer, is set to attend counter-terrorism talks with FBI officials on Thursday and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there had likely been a "healthy discussion" before the visa was granted.
Lundy had requested a U.S. visa in 2005 but was turned down because of "what was believed to be credible evidence of complicity in human trafficking," said former senior State Department official John Miller, who was ambassador at large to stop human trafficking until a few months ago.
"Maybe he has redeemed himself in some way ... my advice to the FBI and Justice Department is that one should be careful when one sups with the devil," he said in a telephone interview.
According to the Human Rights Watch group, Lundy also allegedly was part of a conspiracy to carry out a grenade attack on opposition leader Sam Rainsy in March 1997. The attack killed 16 people and injured more than 150.
Human Rights Watch said the decision to grant Lundy a visa should be reversed because he had been implicated in crimes.
"Hok Lundy's alleged involvement in political violence and organized crime in Cambodia means that the FBI should be investigating him, not hosting him," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Lundy previously has rejected the allegations of human trafficking but Miller said the police chief allegedly played a role in freeing eight traffickers just hours after they were seized in a raid in Cambodia.
"That the biggest trafficking raid with arrests could be overturned within hours ... does not happen without the complicity of the national chief of police," Miller said.
McCormack said a "policy judgment" was taken to let Lundy come to the United States, an indication that Lundy's contribution to the FBI counter-terrorism meeting outweighed questions about other issues.
"I know that there are a lot of allegations and I'm not trying to discount those allegations," McCormack said. "In adjudicating the visa, there were no legal bars to his receiving a visa."
"Obviously there was an inter-agency discussion and the FBI wanted him for his interests in terrorism issues," said Miller.
The FBI declined comment on the issue and referred all questions to the State Department.
Sarith's quote:
His nickname is notorist killer. He has been terrorizing Cambodian people for the last 40 years. We should bring him to trial at International court for the murder of
Cambodian people. We should urge American government not to issue him a visa to travel to U.S.A.
Date: 04/19/2007
Url:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200 ....
Author: Yahoo news
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