The washington post december 27 2016

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For Trump, a clash of deals, policy in China HOTEL HOPES IN NATION DUBBED AN ‘ENEMY’ Ambitious plans could complicate ties with Beijing AND

BY S IMON D ENYER J ONATHAN O ’ C ONNELL

beijing — Donald Trump calls

JANE HAHN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Peacekeepers with disquieting pasts Abuse allegations against some in U.N. service raise questions about vetting process BY

K EVIN S IEFF

butare, rwanda — The three officers had received blue badges and slipped blue covers over their helmets. They were now U.N. peacekeepers, sent from Burundi to help protect victims of a brutal war in the Central African Republic. But each of them had a past the United Nations was unaware of. When the deployments became public, Burundian activists were aghast. One of the officers had run a military jail where beatings and torture occurred, according to civil-society groups and former

prisoners. Another had committed human rights violations when anti-government demonstrations erupted in Burundi last year, U.N. officials would eventually learn. The third had served as the spokesman for the Burundian army, publicly defending an institution accused of abuses. They set out for the Central African Republic in different U.N. deployments over the past year. In each case, U.N. officials soon determined that the allegations against the soldiers and their units were credible enough to send them home. The three cases point to a deeper problem: Even as the

United Nations’ peacekeeping responsibilities grow, it has proven incapable of excluding potential human rights violators from its ranks. The United Nations is managing 16 peacekeeping missions around the globe, with over 100,000 uniformed personnel and an annual $8 billion budget, more than 25 percent of it paid by the United States. As the world body scrambles to fulfill its commitments, it is recruiting some peacekeepers from militaries that have records of abuse or serve repressive governments. Yet the United Nations does not have an effective system to weed out those with violence-

stained backgrounds. That puts the institution at risk of deploying peacekeepers who will tarnish its credibility and even harm the people they were meant to protect. The United Nations has faced a growing crisis over allegations of sexual abuse by its forces. Since 2008, U.N. troops, police and civilian officials have been accused of more than 700 cases of sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as other crimes, according to its records. In Burundi, the government has used its security forces — including the military — to punish U.N. CONTINUED ON A8

U.N. peacekeepers from Burundi patrol in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, in February. Critics say Burundians shouldn’t be peacekeepers because of abuses in their own country.

Indiana’s voucher system o≠ers hint of school policy in the era of Trump BY E MMA AND M ANDY

China an “enemy” of the United States, a threat and an international pariah whose modus operandi is to lie, cheat and steal — but for at least eight years his hotel chain has been trying to do business here. Although negotiations have yet to bear fruit, Trump Hotels has made confident predictions this year about opening 20 or 30 luxury hotels in China. It is an ambition that would involve the company in direct negotiations with a Communist Party that the president-elect professes to fundamentally distrust. On Dec. 12, Trump tweeted that he would do “no new deals” during his time in the White House. It is not clear what that means for Trump Hotels as a company, and both the Trump Organization and the Trump

TRUMP CONTINUED ON A4

Obama feels ‘confident’ he could have defeated Trump Convinced she would win, Clinton was too cautious, president says BY

M ICHAEL K RANISH

President Obama said in an interview released Monday that he could have beaten Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “if I had run again.” In his most pointed critique yet, Obama said Hillary Clinton’s campaign acted too cautiously out of a mistaken belief that victory was all but certain. “If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it

safer,” Obama said in the interview with former adviser and longtime friend David Axelrod, a CNN analyst, for his “The Axe Files” podcast. The president said Clinton “understandably . . . looked and said, well, given my opponent and the things he’s saying and what he’s doing, we should focus on that.” Trump took exception to this critique, tweeting out later in the day: “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! — jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.” Obama stressed his admiration for Clinton and said she had been the victim of unfair attacks. But, as he has in other exit interviews, Obama insisted that OBAMA CONTINUED ON A4

Muslims in a Tennessee town hold their breath Some see more tolerance since the fight over a mosque ended in 2014. But many fear what they’ll see in 2017. BY A BIGAIL H AUSLOHNER IN MURFREESBORO, TENN.

B ROWN M C L AREN

Indiana lawmakers originally promoted the state’s school voucher program as a way to make good on America’s promise of equal opportunity, offering children from poor and lowermiddle-class families an escape from public schools that failed to meet their needs. But five years after the program was established, more than half of the state’s voucher recipients have never attended Indiana public schools, meaning that taxpayers are now covering private and religious school tuition for children whose parents had previously footed that bill. Many vouchers also are going to wealthier families, those earning up to $90,000 for a household of four. The voucher program, one of the nation’s largest and fastestgrowing, serves more than 32,000 children and provides an early glimpse of what education policy could look like in Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump has signaled that he intends to pour billions of federal dollars into efforts to expand

transition team declined to comment for this article. If Trump Hotels goes ahead with its efforts to expand to China, or even if it only lays plans to do so after his term in office, it could hugely complicate one of the most important foreign policy relationships Trump will have to negotiate during his presidency. And the suspicion that Trump as president might be trying to badger China or butter it up to promote his business there risks coloring perceptions of his every move in regard to Beijing — even those that are completely aboveboard. “It’s very hard for foreign politicians to do business in China,” said Liu Xuemei, vice president of New World Development’s Huamei Real Estate Development. “If you want to do politics, don’t try doing business in China.” Liu said it isn’t hard to throw

I

MICHAEL NOBLE JR. FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was built in 2012 amid protests in the Tennessee city. Now, many in the Islamic community fear anti-Muslim sentiment will get greater voice from those emboldened by President-elect Donald Trump.

t was here, in this midsize college town in the dead center of Tennessee, that a right-wing effort to ban Islamic law found one of its first sponsors. Here, too, a congressman cosponsored a plan to “defund Muslim ‘refugees’ ” and local residents sued to block construction of the only mosque, a fight that ended at the Supreme Court. The town’s Muslims carried on through all of that, raising their children, saying their prayers, teaching at college, filling people’s prescriptions and filling their tanks, contributing to the civic life in a city of 126,000. They felt the familiar grief and fear of reprisal last year when a Muslim man killed four Marines in Chattanooga, 90 minutes away. Now Donald Trump — a man who has repeatedly cast doubt on the patriotism of Muslims — is the president-elect, and he has selected a national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has called Islam a “cancer.” And a deep unease has again seeped into the daily life of many here in this Muslim community of about 1,500. There has been a smattering of post-election harassment and insults — at schools, in parking lots, on the road — but nothing to take to the police or put Murfreesboro back in the national headlines. “Right now, we’re hoping that it’s going to be calm,” said Saleh Sbenaty, an engineering professor at Middle Tennessee State University and one of the founders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. “But we don’t know if it’s the calm before the storm MURFREESBORO CONTINUED ON A5

VOUCHERS CONTINUED ON A11

IN THE NEWS

92 people on Christmas Day. A7

Historic visit Shinzo Abe is set to become the first Japanese leader to take part in a ceremony honoring Americans killed at Pearl Harbor. A3

THE WORLD

THE REGION

The battle for Mosul is showing the strengths — and limitations — of coalition air power. A2 Russia played down the likelihood that terrorism was behind the crash of a Soviet-era military jet that killed

Educators are trying to assure immigrant communities, worried about deportations escalating under Donald Trump, that schools are protected places for their children. B1 A new plan for down-

Astronomy pioneer dies Vera Rubin, 88, proved that dark matter exists and made other discoveries that changed the way scientists observe and measure the universe. B4

THE NATION

The Federal Railroad Administration has costly plans to improve the Northeast Corridor. A10 A hearing test may be an effective way to diagnose concussions, a study of children in Chicago found. A10

www.ebook3000.com

town Bethesda envisions a greener, more walkable urban center, but some residents worry that taller buildings will block the sun. B1

NOTE TO READERS

Taking a holiday There is no Health & Science section this week. It will return Tuesday, Jan. 3.

SPORTS

A Maryland comeback fell short as Boston College hung on to defeat the Terps, 36-30, in the Quick Lane Bowl. D1

BUSINESS NEWS..........................A9 COMICS........................................C4 OPINION PAGES..........................A12 LOTTERIES ................................... B3 OBITUARIES ................................. B4 TELEVISION..................................C2 WORLD NEWS .............................. A6

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