F ORTY high-ranking-military officers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces

(RCAF) are taking part in a five-day training program on human rights.

Organized by the Ministry of Defense and the United Nations Center for Human

Rights (UNCHR), the Feb 20-24 program covered international human rights and

humanitarian law.

It was one of four such training sessions to be given to RCAF officers

throughout Cambodia this year.

A human rights officer, who did not want to be named, said the training

included details of human rights laws such as the 1949 Geneva Convention against

war crimes, of which Cambodia is a signatory.

"Soldiers have had little training on human rights. They don't understand the

Geneva Convention."

"They don't understand human rights," he said.

The Khmer Rouge remained the biggest violators of human rights in Cambodia,

but the RCAF and the police also committed abuses, he said