Critics decry State Dept. as rudderless
Tillerson’s cuts raise concerns in Congress
WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his first official trip to Myanmar this week, he largely ignored the country’s widespread human rights abuses.
Security forces have conducted or allowed what critics call systematic rape and murder against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority, leading to a refugee flood across the border. But standing in Naypyitaw, the capital, Tillerson declined to call for sanctions or other censure, saying more investigation is needed.
“If we have credible information that we believe to be very reliable that certain individuals were responsible for certain acts that we find unacceptable,” Tillerson said, “then targeted sanctions on individuals very well may be appropriate.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented atrocities against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said there is “mounting evidence” of ethnic cleansing.
Whether Tillerson was ill-informed or following administration policy wasn’t clear. Unlike his recent predecessors, President Donald Trump did not bring up human rights concerns during his visit to China, or during his subsequent visit to the Philippines, where the government is blamed for the extrajudicial killings of thousands of people.
But Tillerson’s soft-pedaling of the crisis fed growing concerns on Capitol Hill that he is leaving the State Department largely rudderless and that U.S. diplomacy is woefully absent from Myanmar and other places where it is needed — including efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Syrian civil war.
The unease drew unusual rebukes from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who say U.S. diplomats, aid workers, academics and development specialists are retiring or quitting the State Department in alarming numbers. The exodus has weakened U.S. diplomacy and sent morale into a tailspin, they said.
Tillerson is overseeing what he has called a major redesign of the State Department, including an 8 percent cut in the overall staff of about 70,000 Americans and non-Americans around the world. He has left many top posts unfilled, including the assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific affairs. An acting secretary is doing the job for now.
“If this sort of high-level decapitation of leadership were going on at the Defense Department, I can guarantee you that the Congress would be up in arms,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Yet there is silence. Why?”
Speaking at a hearing to confirm new State Department nominees, he added, “We put our country in danger when we do not give adequate voice and resources to all our country’s national security tools.”
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the committee, echoed that concern.
“The State Department, as you know, is not functioning particularly well, I hate to say,” he said. “They’re undermanned.”
Sens. John McCain, RAriz., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., also complained, saying Tillerson was cutting too deeply.
In response, the State Department defended its redesign plans, saying they were aimed at streamlining the agency to “give our workforce more tools” to promote diplomatic goals.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also sought to push back on reports that the department was being gutted and riddled with low morale.
In a press briefing Friday, she called the redesign “a work in progress.” She insisted the number of senior foreign service officers was only slightly below the number this time last year, but she said Tillerson is still committed to shrinking the workforce.
In Myanmar, human rights groups have been dismayed at the failure of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out on the plight of the Rohingya, especially now that she is state counselor, a position akin to prime minister.
John Sifton, who is following the conflict in Myanmar for Human Rights Watch, said it was “naive” for Tillerson to call for another investigation.
“We are well past that stage in this crisis,” Sifton said. “Time and time again, the government has shown itself to be unwilling and unable to acknowledge their own misdeeds.”
Joanne Lin, a senior U.S. official for Amnesty International, said Tillerson was correct to advocate greater humanitarian access for the Rohingya refugees, but he needed to do more.
“A strong U.S. response combined with decisive action by the international community is what is needed to halt the Myanmar military’s atrocities against the Rohingya people,” Lin said.