A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 18 March 2015

First lady Michelle Obama to make historic visit to Cambodia

FILE: President Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, speaks in the East Room of the White House, on March 3, where they announced their ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)


 March 16 Washington Post

First lady Michelle Obama could confront difficult politics when she makes a historic trip to Cambodia this week.

Obama will become the first sitting first lady to visit that Southeast Asian nation during a five-day trip to Asia to promote her new "Let Girls Learn" global education initiative, White House officials said Monday. (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Hillary Clinton both visited after their husbands were president.)

The tour, which also includes a first stop in Japan, will mark the first lady's fourth official trip abroad without the president, following visits to Mexico and Haiti in 2010, South Africa and Botswana in 2011, and China last year. Her daughters and mother, who accompanied her last year, will not be on the trip this week, officials said.

Human rights advocates pressed the White House to take a public stand against Cambodia's human rights abuses during a brief stop by President Obama in Phnom Penh for a regional leaders summit in 2012. Though Obama did not make public remarks, aides said he pressured the government in private talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The first lady has said on past trips that she was intent on avoiding sensitive geopolitics, and aides stressed that the focus of her trip this week is on the educational initiative.


But Evan Medeiros, Asia director at the National Security Council, said that "when the first lady is in Cambodia she will have ample opportunity to reinforce progress at the community level. ... She will reinforce our view of open and inclusive political systems. And she will give a speech highlighting the basic values and principles that are important to the United States."

During her trip to China last year, the first lady described it as a goodwill tour with cultural visits. But she also gave a relatively forceful address that specifically touched on free speech and human rights. And she held a roundtable with persecuted minorities and ate at a Tibetan restaurant.

Aides said Obama will start her trip in Japan, where she will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo and visit Kyoto to tour a Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine. In Cambodia, she is scheduled to make remarks to Peace Corps workers in Siem Reap, meet with civil society advocates and tour the renowned Angkor Wat temple complex.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Begin of Drgunzet's comment.

What about the rampant rape, gang-rape problem going on in Cambodia? Why is Michelle Obama not bring the rape issue up?

-Drgunzet-