Cambodia expands fight against foreign pedophiles
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24-Aug-2005
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August 05, 2004 - Effort shifts prosecution to home countries AFP
After decades of war that ended just six years ago, the freewheeling, poverty-stricken kingdom has earned a dubious reputation as a haven for pedophiles, with a lax judicial system and an entrenched culture of impunity.
But experts say the tide is turning, with 21 foreign pedophiles jailed or deported from Cambodia since the start of 2003, according to Interior Ministry figures. On Wednesday the police reported the arrest of a French bar manager on charges of having had sex with nine children, some as young as 12.
"The government has acknowledged that it has a problem and it has started to take action, and it has been supported by international action," said Unicef's representative in Cambodia, Rodney Hatfield.
Cambodian hotel and guesthouse owners in March were asked to report suspected pedophiles. Last month, World Vision put up billboards in Phnom Penh with a U.S. Department of Immigration warning: "Abuse a child in this country, go to jail in yours."
The billboards, with a hot-line number to report suspects, are also planned for Siem Reap, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex, and the beachside resort of Sihanoukville.
Under 2003 U.S. legislation, an American citizen convicted of having sex with a child abroad faces 30 years in a U.S. prison. Three Americans have been deported from Cambodia since last September.
"We have to tell the world that Cambodia is not a sex tourist destination. They can come here for cultural tourism but not sex tourism," said Khieu Sopheak, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
Japan and Australia are among an increasing number of countries enacting similar legislation ensuring that crimes against children are punishable in the offender's home country.
Hang Vibol, director of Action for Children, a group that monitors suspected pedophiles and feeds information to the police, applauded shifting prosecution out of Cambodia.
"In Cambodia, the situation is that, if people give money to the police or to the courts, they get off," he said. "In Cambodia if you have money you can do anything."
Other problems include pedophiles' increasing discretion, complicity of parents and powerful local interests that ensure a steady supply of victims.
"Police seem to be paying more attention to this kind of problem," Hang Vibol said, but he added that "the numbers of pedophiles are still the same. Those committing this crime are changing their strategy."
They once brazenly picked up children from main tourist areas in the capital, but now ask motorcycle taxi drivers to take them outside the city to prowl for available children, or they befriend a child and build relationships with the child's parents.
"Some parents are cooperating with pedophiles to sell their own children. The parents are not helping to give evidence," he added.
Hatfield said the biggest single problem remained that people were making money from the business. "It's all very well stamping down on the demand, but it's an unpleasant fact that we don't seem to be able to do much about the supply."
While arrests are increasing, a handful of detained Westerners have been released, calling into question how evidence was handled and whether innocent people were being unfairly treated, or the guilty were getting off.
"It's important not to presume guilt," said World Vision's Laurence Gray.
"There is a process that needs to be followed" and nongovernmental organizations "can help give a voice to this," Gray said.
"If people are freed and justice has not been done, then this means there needs to be better mechanisms, a better system," he said.