Cambodia: U.S. Non-lethal Assistance and Status of the Cambodian Seat at the United Nations

GAO discussed the: (1) accountability for and impact of non-lethal assistance the United States provided to the military forces of the Noncommunist Cambodian Resistance (NCR); and (2) the status of the United Nations (UN) seat held by the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. GAO noted that: (1) despite poor accountability and control over the non-lethal assistance program in its initial years, the Agency for International Development now had controls to ensure that aid reached NCR; (2) while there was no evidence that U.S. assistance was directly providing benefits to the Khmer Rouge, accountability systems did not exist that would provide such assurance; (3) communications occuring between military officers of the NCR and Khmer Rouge may have indirectly augmented the Khmer Rouge's military capacity; (4) the Khmer Rouge had greater financial support than the two NCR parties, and a Khmer Rouge representative headed the UN delegations in New York and Geneva; (5) decisions on UN issues that were important to Cambodia were made on a consensus basis; and (6) the Secretary of State reported that the United States would no longer support the UN seating of the Coalition Government as long as the Khmer Rouge remained a part of the coalition.