Original report from Phnom Penh
17 March 2009
Imagine the pain of someone pressing burning steel to your face or body. Chiev Chenda experienced such suffering when a woman poured litres of nitric acid on her.
“Before I used to see, look after and play with my children, but now I can’t since I’ve become blind,” she said, trying to recall in a recent interview what happened to her last month when she was attacked near her house in the outskirt of Phnom Penh.
Chiev Chenda is just one of hundreds of other acid attack survivors in Cambodia, victims of a crime that observers say is increasing.
The Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity supports roughly 200 survivors of acid burns since 2006.
Acid Survivors Director James Gollogly said most victims are women, who account for 60 percent, while men and children make up 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
“The motivations [of acid attacks] are many different types,” Gollogly said. “The classic one is revenge for some young women who are the mistresses of some older guys, and his wife either pours acid on them herself or gets someone to do it.”
According to a Licadho’s 2003 “Living in the Shadows,” a report on acid attacks in Cambodia, the perpetrator usually does not want to kill the victim but wants to destroy her face, to make the victim look like a monster so that nobody will ever love her.
The acids most frequently used in the attacks are sulfuric or nitric. These acids can melt human flesh and even bones, causing excruciating pain and terror and leaving victims mutilated and scarred for life.
Ung Bunthan, who compiled the Licadho report and has been monitoring acid attacks in Cambodia since 1999, said attack survivors not only suffer physically but they also have to live in a state of being worse than death.
“Some acid attack victims become blind; some lose their nose, ears and even skull,” he said, adding that some victims confine themselves at home as a result of shame, or to avoid social discrimination.
“They live neither as a human nor as a ghost,” he said.
Licadho recorded 44 cases of acid attacks between 1999 and 2003, but the recent record shows 114 new cases for the past five years, according to Ung Bunthan.
But the actual number of acid attack cases may be higher, as some cases go unreported, he said.
“The increase in acid attacks may result from the police’s incapability to arrest perpetrators,” Ung Bunthan said. “So when a perpetrator can walk free after committing an acid attack, he can still do the same with other victims later.”
Reached by phone, Chief of Penal Police Maj. Gen. Mok Chito did not respond to questions about acid attacks.
But Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng said the authorities can work on the issue only with court and victim cooperation.
“To arrest someone, we have to work with a prosecutor to have an arrest warrant first, and then we also need the victim’s complaint,” she said.
Centre for Social Development Executive Director Seng Theary, however, said the authorities still fear the rich and the powerful in their implementation of the law.
“We can all see that the role of police is still limited,” she said. “Most of the time, they only punish the poor and the weak, but they dare not do the same with the rich and the powerful. This is unjust.”
Under the Cambodian law, a perpetrator can face up to 10 years in jail and a life sentence if the acid attack victim dies or becomes disabled.
An acid attack on a karaoke singer Tat Marina in December 1999, allegedly by the wife of a a senior government official, attracted a lot of publicity, but the alleged perpetrator and accomplices have never been arrested and brought to justice.
Similarly, the woman who attacked Chiev Chenda remains at large.
“It should never have happened to me,” the 34-year-old mother of three said, tears streaking down her badly scared face. “I am really suffering.”
“Before I used to see, look after and play with my children, but now I can’t since I’ve become blind,” she said, trying to recall in a recent interview what happened to her last month when she was attacked near her house in the outskirt of Phnom Penh.
Chiev Chenda is just one of hundreds of other acid attack survivors in Cambodia, victims of a crime that observers say is increasing.
The Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity supports roughly 200 survivors of acid burns since 2006.
Acid Survivors Director James Gollogly said most victims are women, who account for 60 percent, while men and children make up 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
“The motivations [of acid attacks] are many different types,” Gollogly said. “The classic one is revenge for some young women who are the mistresses of some older guys, and his wife either pours acid on them herself or gets someone to do it.”
According to a Licadho’s 2003 “Living in the Shadows,” a report on acid attacks in Cambodia, the perpetrator usually does not want to kill the victim but wants to destroy her face, to make the victim look like a monster so that nobody will ever love her.
The acids most frequently used in the attacks are sulfuric or nitric. These acids can melt human flesh and even bones, causing excruciating pain and terror and leaving victims mutilated and scarred for life.
Ung Bunthan, who compiled the Licadho report and has been monitoring acid attacks in Cambodia since 1999, said attack survivors not only suffer physically but they also have to live in a state of being worse than death.
“Some acid attack victims become blind; some lose their nose, ears and even skull,” he said, adding that some victims confine themselves at home as a result of shame, or to avoid social discrimination.
“They live neither as a human nor as a ghost,” he said.
Licadho recorded 44 cases of acid attacks between 1999 and 2003, but the recent record shows 114 new cases for the past five years, according to Ung Bunthan.
But the actual number of acid attack cases may be higher, as some cases go unreported, he said.
“The increase in acid attacks may result from the police’s incapability to arrest perpetrators,” Ung Bunthan said. “So when a perpetrator can walk free after committing an acid attack, he can still do the same with other victims later.”
Reached by phone, Chief of Penal Police Maj. Gen. Mok Chito did not respond to questions about acid attacks.
But Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng said the authorities can work on the issue only with court and victim cooperation.
“To arrest someone, we have to work with a prosecutor to have an arrest warrant first, and then we also need the victim’s complaint,” she said.
Centre for Social Development Executive Director Seng Theary, however, said the authorities still fear the rich and the powerful in their implementation of the law.
“We can all see that the role of police is still limited,” she said. “Most of the time, they only punish the poor and the weak, but they dare not do the same with the rich and the powerful. This is unjust.”
Under the Cambodian law, a perpetrator can face up to 10 years in jail and a life sentence if the acid attack victim dies or becomes disabled.
An acid attack on a karaoke singer Tat Marina in December 1999, allegedly by the wife of a a senior government official, attracted a lot of publicity, but the alleged perpetrator and accomplices have never been arrested and brought to justice.
Similarly, the woman who attacked Chiev Chenda remains at large.
“It should never have happened to me,” the 34-year-old mother of three said, tears streaking down her badly scared face. “I am really suffering.”
15 comments:
I think if you pour acid over Bun Rany's (Hun Sen's wife) face, she would actually look much better than she looks right now.
A lot of the CPP officials' wives are ugly as hell. There's reason why they end up having mistresses and cheating on their wives with karaoke actresses, beer hostess, and female students. As a result of instant rage and jealousy, these wives resort to hiring willing individual(s) to perpetrate acid attacks. The police all know this and because the people who do commit these crimes are wives of wealthy businessmen, high government officials and generals, the wives somehow possess a sense of immunity from investigations and charges.
Kind of fucked up but that's how it is in Cambodia.
There should be a law of acid for acid. Starting with Khuon Sophal and her accomplice.
7 bullets for Bun Rany Hun Sen.
Bun Rany Hun Sen can say all she want about Cambodian girls on TV wearing swim suits and short skirts and claiming that they have no morals and it is a shame on Cambodian culture, then try to ban it. However, she will never take any measures on the availability of acids because she knows she needs to use those acids from time to time (i.e. Hun Sen's mistresses) and why would she need to ban her weapon? It would be kind of like how Hun Sen trying to ban cigarette imports & indoor smoking.
This is definitely good news. It shows that the Khmer culture still has some self-defense left against westerner influence, especially pouk Ah Evil Scam Rainxy.
Thank you, Buddha!
I wrote at 6:03 AM. I would like to retract my comment. My Yuon bosses makes me write these types of comments and I finally got some balls to stand up for myself.
Sorry KI-Media and KI-Media readers for using terms such as "Ah Pouk Scam Rainxy", "over-seas potato diggers", etc. Sorry sorry sorry!
Forgive me, Buddha!
6:10 AM
Faggot. Obviously, you are a fucking pretending asshole. Be an man and stand for your own beliefs instead of being an anonymous pussy imitator.
6:50 AM---Of course I am a foggot. I am your boyfriend. We're gay lovers, remember? Don't tell me you forgot?????
We also have to remember that these types of attacks also occur in countries such as Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Algeria, but they don't always have to involve the use of acids. Problems like these are not isolated to just Cambodia. However, the frequency of attacks involving acids is on the rise and this pose a great threat to everyone, mainly Cambodian women. At times, the victims may or may not be the ones committing adultary but they still get attacked as a result of people gossipping and spreading rumors and finally these rumors (whether they be true or not) reaches the potential perpetrator.
Right, and everyone knows pouk Ah Scam Rainxy is the master of false rumours. They have been doing it for decades now, just to cause chaos in Cambodia so that they can score a few votes from the election. If that is not pure evil from hell, I don't know what is.
why the gov't still allow this to go on without bringing to justice the culprit, no matter who they are!
the women are always the victims, how about the men? i'm sure if the men weren't so horney and promiscuous, the ladies wouldn't be spreading her legs! i think cambodia ought to make the law to punish the horney men who cause pain and suffering for their wives and the ladies they cheated with. this type of cruel inhumane behavior must be stopped!
9:34 AM, I do agree with you about Pouk ah Scam ranzy always spread a false rumors about our Honoi government...oops, I mean to say CPP. These over sea people need to stay where they belong and mind their own business. The CPP is doing a good job running the country. Our government have to compansate for our lost in helping to kick the Khmer Rough out 1979. Nothing is for free in this world and it is nothing wrong with letting a few of our people to come and stay in Kampuchea.
your brother always,
Lam Nguyen
Pouk Ah Joy Mray Hun Xen via ter ka bomrer pakpouk via jroul pake. Ah chker Hunsen bomrer ther pouk ah towk thiab kompouch yuon. Via min mane ter ka bomrer khmer te. Ah Joy Mray Hun Sen.Pouk Ah chker bomrer krong Hanoi.
Lam Nguyen destroyer.
Cambodian loves to kill each others like dogs/cats. And it always take foreigners to help find peace and justice for them. What is wrong with these damn people?
They cannot help their own fellow Cambodian, but they are good at spraying salt and peppers. I don't think Cambodian love to see justice in their community and for their nation. Their behaviors are so bad.
Sincerely,
Foreigner who cares for all victims in Cambodia
Cambodian cannot help Cambodian, but bickering and inflicting more pain over the wound. This is the reason why I lost faith in my own fellow khmer people. It is the reason that I pushed myself forward to cooperate with foreigners to find justice.
Tat
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