Camille Bains,
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — A team of Canadian police officers is aiming to train authorities in Cambodia to investigate cases of child sexual abuse by men who flock to that country from around the world.
Kenneth Klassen, of suburban Burnaby, is the second Canadian to face child-sex tourism charges for allegedly exploiting girls as young as nine in various jurisdictions including Cambodia.
Klassen, 56, is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Vancouver on Monday.
Ted Price, director of the Canadian Police Chiefs International Service Agency, said he has assembled a team to train Cambodian police in taking statements from young survivors of sexual abuse, doing searches of homes and computers and managing cases.
“What we want to do is equip Cambodian police with skill sets that will assist them in investigating the sexual exploitation of children,” said Price, a retired superintendent with the Toronto police department.
“I have lined up four Canadian police personnel who are experts in those areas from across Canada,” he said from his home in Chilliwack, B.C.
Price said Cambodian authorities asked for the training during his three recent trips to that country, where too many kids fall prey to men who travel there from developed countries without fear of the law.
“They are taken advantage of for a whole plethora of reasons and we, as Canadian law enforcement officers, want to assist these children,” said Price, who has done humanitarian work in several countries including Thailand, Lithuania, Myanmar and Albania.
Canada’s child-sex tourism laws were enacted in 1997 and bolstered five years later to no longer require the consent of the foreign country where allegations of sexual abuse took place.
In 2005, Donald Bakker of Vancouver was the first Canadian to be convicted under the law.
Bakker received a 10-year sentence for 10 sexual assaults on girls between seven and 12 in Svay Pak, Cambodia, where he videotaped his horrific exploits.
Price said his group will be submitting proposals to various agencies so the team of four active police officers from Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver can travel to Cambodia.
Brian McConaghy, director of the Vancouver-based Ratanak Foundation, which has built hospitals and clinics in Cambodia, said Canada’s first child-sex tourism conviction raised incredible awareness of the plight of children who are abused by foreigners.
“We’re way ahead of where we were three years ago in terms of understanding this is a real live problem that is daily in its occurrence and thousands of kids are involved,” he said.
McConaghy, who is also an RCMP forensic scientist who played a key role in Bakker’s investigation, said the expertise of Price’s police team would be a valuable asset to Cambodian authorities.
“They would be basically giving them the resources both to help protect their own kids in the country and also to facilitate international investigations that Canada or other countries would be interested in pursuing.”
McConaghy, who has travelled extensively in Cambodia, said the country has been a hot spot for international pedophiles because it was left so impoverished by the political turmoil of the Khamer Rouge.
The Communist guerilla group took control of the country in the 1970s and forced people to work in slave labour camps as families were divided and children became soldiers in the killing fields.
As the country opened up to tourists, poor parents sold their kids to foreigners looking for sex.
McConaghy said that’s because they were raised by revolutionaries and don’t understand what they’re doing to their kids.
“The recovery of Cambodia is a long-term thing based on the damage done to that society,” he said.
“The poverty just exacerbates that totally because it means that a pedophile here has incredible power because he can move into an area and his wealth means he can get whatever he likes on whatever terms he likes. And they don’t have a legal system or structure to defend their own kids.”
Bakker’s conviction, along with several recent high-profile child-sex tourist cases in the United States has, to some degree, reduced the exploitation of very young kids who were previously concentrated in Cambodia’s brothels, he said.
At the same time the industry has been driven underground so it’s harder for police to investigate the hard-core pedophiles who have connections, said McConaghy, whose charity has built a high-security shelter for Cambodian girls rescued from the clutches of sexual slavery.
Linda Tripp, spokeswoman for World Vision Canada, said her group, along with UNICEF and other non-governmental agencies, works with Cambodian police to advocate for the sensitive treatment of children who have been traumatized as sex slaves.
“Sometimes they’re treated as criminals themselves or they’re stuck in prison because there’s no place else for the police to put them.”
Kenneth Klassen, of suburban Burnaby, is the second Canadian to face child-sex tourism charges for allegedly exploiting girls as young as nine in various jurisdictions including Cambodia.
Klassen, 56, is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Vancouver on Monday.
Ted Price, director of the Canadian Police Chiefs International Service Agency, said he has assembled a team to train Cambodian police in taking statements from young survivors of sexual abuse, doing searches of homes and computers and managing cases.
“What we want to do is equip Cambodian police with skill sets that will assist them in investigating the sexual exploitation of children,” said Price, a retired superintendent with the Toronto police department.
“I have lined up four Canadian police personnel who are experts in those areas from across Canada,” he said from his home in Chilliwack, B.C.
Price said Cambodian authorities asked for the training during his three recent trips to that country, where too many kids fall prey to men who travel there from developed countries without fear of the law.
“They are taken advantage of for a whole plethora of reasons and we, as Canadian law enforcement officers, want to assist these children,” said Price, who has done humanitarian work in several countries including Thailand, Lithuania, Myanmar and Albania.
Canada’s child-sex tourism laws were enacted in 1997 and bolstered five years later to no longer require the consent of the foreign country where allegations of sexual abuse took place.
In 2005, Donald Bakker of Vancouver was the first Canadian to be convicted under the law.
Bakker received a 10-year sentence for 10 sexual assaults on girls between seven and 12 in Svay Pak, Cambodia, where he videotaped his horrific exploits.
Price said his group will be submitting proposals to various agencies so the team of four active police officers from Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver can travel to Cambodia.
Brian McConaghy, director of the Vancouver-based Ratanak Foundation, which has built hospitals and clinics in Cambodia, said Canada’s first child-sex tourism conviction raised incredible awareness of the plight of children who are abused by foreigners.
“We’re way ahead of where we were three years ago in terms of understanding this is a real live problem that is daily in its occurrence and thousands of kids are involved,” he said.
McConaghy, who is also an RCMP forensic scientist who played a key role in Bakker’s investigation, said the expertise of Price’s police team would be a valuable asset to Cambodian authorities.
“They would be basically giving them the resources both to help protect their own kids in the country and also to facilitate international investigations that Canada or other countries would be interested in pursuing.”
McConaghy, who has travelled extensively in Cambodia, said the country has been a hot spot for international pedophiles because it was left so impoverished by the political turmoil of the Khamer Rouge.
The Communist guerilla group took control of the country in the 1970s and forced people to work in slave labour camps as families were divided and children became soldiers in the killing fields.
As the country opened up to tourists, poor parents sold their kids to foreigners looking for sex.
McConaghy said that’s because they were raised by revolutionaries and don’t understand what they’re doing to their kids.
“The recovery of Cambodia is a long-term thing based on the damage done to that society,” he said.
“The poverty just exacerbates that totally because it means that a pedophile here has incredible power because he can move into an area and his wealth means he can get whatever he likes on whatever terms he likes. And they don’t have a legal system or structure to defend their own kids.”
Bakker’s conviction, along with several recent high-profile child-sex tourist cases in the United States has, to some degree, reduced the exploitation of very young kids who were previously concentrated in Cambodia’s brothels, he said.
At the same time the industry has been driven underground so it’s harder for police to investigate the hard-core pedophiles who have connections, said McConaghy, whose charity has built a high-security shelter for Cambodian girls rescued from the clutches of sexual slavery.
Linda Tripp, spokeswoman for World Vision Canada, said her group, along with UNICEF and other non-governmental agencies, works with Cambodian police to advocate for the sensitive treatment of children who have been traumatized as sex slaves.
“Sometimes they’re treated as criminals themselves or they’re stuck in prison because there’s no place else for the police to put them.”
1 comment:
REgardless of what country is training Cambodian police, as long as Hok Lundy and a few others on the top, these police trainnee will not be able to learn anything. It just wasting the time and monies. To change the behaviours of Cambodian police, it must remove all the police commanders left from State of Cambodia.
Post a Comment