Saturday, December 02, 2006

Police Look Into Alleged Gang Rape of Australian

Friday, December 01, 2006

By James Welsh
THE CAMBODIA DAILY


Police have begun investigating an Australian woman's disclosure that she was raped at gunpoint by five Cambodian youths in central Phnom Penh in early November, officials said Thursday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak said the case is being taken seriously, despite the victim's decision not to report the assault to police.

"We share our grief with the victim and shame for that. Now we are very actively investigating the case and we recognize that the suspect should not escape from the law," Khieu Sopheak said, adding that he hopes that when the 25-year-old victim returns to Cambodia, she will cooperate with police.

"Phnom Penh is safe," he said.

The woman: wrote by email from Australia on Tuesday that the attack happened at 2 am on Nov 1 in a street somewhere near Sihanouk and Monivong Boulevards.

Phnom Penh Police Chief Touch Naruth said police take security for foreigners very seriously. But he questioned the Australian woman's decision to not report the attack.

"It seems she wanted to blame Cambodian police and treat Cambodia badly," he said. "She just shouted from abroad."

He also said that as a month has elapsed since the woman was attacked, it will be difficult to investigate the case.

Kek Galabru, founder of local rights group Licadho, said rape cases tend not to be reported to police and those that are, generally get settled outside court.

"I don’t know the reason for the Australian, but for Cambodians they don’t go to the police because they don’t trust the police," she said.

By the end of October, Licadho had received reports of 228 rapes across Cambodia, she said. Of these, 75 were committed against adults and 163 against children under 17. By the end of September, Licadho had received seven cases of adults being gang raped, and six cases of gang rape where the victims were under the age of 17.

By September, local rights group Adhoc had received 306 cases of rape occurring outside Phnom Penh. Only 25 convictions have been made on rape cases for this year, said Ouk Chanthara, Adhoc program officer.

Fourteen cases of gang rape had been reported to Adhoc by September, she said.

In the countryside, Ouk Chanthara said, "most rapes happen when parents leave their children at home to find jobs."

Researcher Tong Soprach, who warned of the gang rape phenomenon in a report he co-wrote for the NGO Care in 2003, said that since then, the problem has spread beyond the most affected group at the time—sex workers.

"Today it has happened to an Australian woman," he said. "If the government doesn’t intervene the problem will get worse."

Khieu Sopheak said that the police take rape and gang rape very seriously.

(Additional reporting by Van Roeun)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hee, Mr. Touch Naruth!!
Do you sleep too long or just get up?? Why don't you know how bad people treat your police corp? How much have you all done for the victims, not just talking about the australian woman??? You are very very very bad in cambodian people's eyes, but we don't have choice to change you guys because you all don't serve people but serve only those power-addicted guys who give you power and money. It is a bit good already if you don't help gangs to rape women (trafficking).

Anonymous said...

Australia gave alot of money for land mine clearing and other aid programs.

Hun Sen, Hok Lundy, Sok An must find the rapists and hang them high.

Raping Australian woman or any other women is bad name for the whole Khmer people who live around the world and inside Cambodia.

The tourists will not come to Cambodia anymore if CPP protecting the rapist.

KAUN NEAK SRE