A Licadho representative holds up the portrait of an 11-year-old girl raped and killed in Kampong Cham in February. (Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG)Thursday, 19 March 2009
Written by Chrann Chamroeun and Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post
Sexual abuse towards children in Cambodia is not only high, it's now growing, officials say.
ON February 13, two six-year-old girls were raped by a 43-year-old man in Banteay Meanchey province. The victims, who were cousins, lived in the same village as Lorn Lun, who attacked them at Preah Punlea lake in the province's Serei Sophoan district, just 300 metres from their house.
Despite a dearth of reliable data, government officials and civil society groups say instances of reported child sex abuse, including child rape, are on the increase. Lorn Lun has been charged with rape and is currently in pretrial detention, pending further investigation.
But prosecutions and convictions are not the norm: Weak or corrupt law enforcement and entrenched social attitudes mean that child sex abuse is under-reported and, if it is, frequently goes unpunished.
"We have heard from local police, telling us directly that they help rapists [escape prosecution] in order to get financial benefits to supplement their low salaries," Eng Chhun Han, a Licadho coordinator in Pursat, told the Post.
"[Police] say they have many strategies to help rapists escape punishment, like trying to persuade or threaten victims not to complain to the court, or telling them it is a waste of time and it will damage their reputation," he said, adding he had noticed an increase in reported instances of child rape, and rape generally, since around 2005, which he felt could be attributed to rising corruption and impuntiy.
He described a case in which an underage victim in Pursat province was allegedly raped in October by a man from the same village. The man was sent to court for further investigation, but was only detained until January, after which he was released without trial.
"Corruption like this amongst local police and court officials means that [perpetrators] are not afraid of repeating the same crime again," he added.
Social attitudes also play a part, said Am Sam Ath, a monitoring supervisor for Licadho.
"Some men think that when they have sex with young girls it makes them live longer and get stronger," he said.
Majority of rape is child rape
Across the country in 2008, Adhoc recorded 419 cases of rape, the majority of which - some 280 - were rapes against minors.
Cambodian law defines a minor as under 15, Sok Sam Oeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, told the Post. An adult's sexual intercourse with a minor is defined as statutory rape based on the principle that a child is not capable of consent and that any apparent consent by a child is not considered to be legal consent, he added.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Cambodia is a signatory, requires states to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. This includes outlawing the coercion of a child to perform sexual activity, the prostitution of children and the exploitation of children in creating pornography.
But the government admits it is struggling to even understand the scale of the problem, let alone address it.
"It is very hard for me to evaluate whether rape cases have increased or not ... but according to information we collect from the Khmer newspapers, rape against minors has increased each year, and is becoming more brutal," Chou Bun Eng, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior said.
She said the ministry has just started to collect their own data for the first time; however, the newspaper system was still the only regular data they had.
Ket Marady, head of the Ministry of Women's Affair's Legal Prevention Department, said Wednesday that according to newspaper reports, there were 186 cases of rape in 2007, 127 of which were of minors. The 2008 statistics, she said, had not yet been tallied.
"Our ministry only has statistics based on reports in the three local newspapers that report across the country. It is not a national standard, only basic data that we can use to intervene when we see some irregularities," she said.
Statistically, the problem is actually decreasing, said Lim Mony, program officer for Adhoc's statistics department. However, she said this was only due to a change in reporting methods.
"Although statistics released recently indicate a decrease, this is mainly because the government and NGOs now work separately to record the number of reports," she told the Post Wednesday.
Lim Mony said child rape was committed "mainly by relatives and neighbours, especially in the countryside where people don't have as much access to education", and that "very few" strangers committed child rape, suggesting that high-profile pedophile cases involving foreigners were in fact in the minority.
Root causes not addressed
Dr Ken Wilcox, who runs a psychology practice in Phnom Penh, said the root causes of rape and rape against minors is the "same as it would be in the West: opportunity, aggression, sexual suppression (societal issues), revenge, anger, externalisation of internal struggles" like depression or loss.
However, he believed groups working with the issue in Cambodia, unlike the West, neglected societal and long-term psychological issues - such as coping mechanisms for victims and isolation problems for the perpetrators - for more immediate relief of the situation.
"[The current approach] is not affecting the root cause of the social construction. It is not dealing with the underlying issues of both the individual and society. It is only trying to work on the problem after," he said.
"NGOs, etc, provide shelter and care and possible training for the women. Admittedly, this is an important part to treatment, but ... little work on the social issues that have now stripped this woman of her future [is being done]," he added.
Bith Kimhong, director of the Ministry of Interior's Anti-human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, said the government had begun prosecuting and arresting more people this year in relation to child rape.
"In the last two months, we have arrested seven suspects, including three US citizens, one Canadian and one German," he said. However, he added that the people who commit child rape were "mostly Cambodian men".
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEA
ON February 13, two six-year-old girls were raped by a 43-year-old man in Banteay Meanchey province. The victims, who were cousins, lived in the same village as Lorn Lun, who attacked them at Preah Punlea lake in the province's Serei Sophoan district, just 300 metres from their house.
Despite a dearth of reliable data, government officials and civil society groups say instances of reported child sex abuse, including child rape, are on the increase. Lorn Lun has been charged with rape and is currently in pretrial detention, pending further investigation.
But prosecutions and convictions are not the norm: Weak or corrupt law enforcement and entrenched social attitudes mean that child sex abuse is under-reported and, if it is, frequently goes unpunished.
"We have heard from local police, telling us directly that they help rapists [escape prosecution] in order to get financial benefits to supplement their low salaries," Eng Chhun Han, a Licadho coordinator in Pursat, told the Post.
"[Police] say they have many strategies to help rapists escape punishment, like trying to persuade or threaten victims not to complain to the court, or telling them it is a waste of time and it will damage their reputation," he said, adding he had noticed an increase in reported instances of child rape, and rape generally, since around 2005, which he felt could be attributed to rising corruption and impuntiy.
He described a case in which an underage victim in Pursat province was allegedly raped in October by a man from the same village. The man was sent to court for further investigation, but was only detained until January, after which he was released without trial.
"Corruption like this amongst local police and court officials means that [perpetrators] are not afraid of repeating the same crime again," he added.
Social attitudes also play a part, said Am Sam Ath, a monitoring supervisor for Licadho.
"Some men think that when they have sex with young girls it makes them live longer and get stronger," he said.
Majority of rape is child rape
Across the country in 2008, Adhoc recorded 419 cases of rape, the majority of which - some 280 - were rapes against minors.
Cambodian law defines a minor as under 15, Sok Sam Oeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, told the Post. An adult's sexual intercourse with a minor is defined as statutory rape based on the principle that a child is not capable of consent and that any apparent consent by a child is not considered to be legal consent, he added.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Cambodia is a signatory, requires states to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. This includes outlawing the coercion of a child to perform sexual activity, the prostitution of children and the exploitation of children in creating pornography.
But the government admits it is struggling to even understand the scale of the problem, let alone address it.
"It is very hard for me to evaluate whether rape cases have increased or not ... but according to information we collect from the Khmer newspapers, rape against minors has increased each year, and is becoming more brutal," Chou Bun Eng, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior said.
She said the ministry has just started to collect their own data for the first time; however, the newspaper system was still the only regular data they had.
Ket Marady, head of the Ministry of Women's Affair's Legal Prevention Department, said Wednesday that according to newspaper reports, there were 186 cases of rape in 2007, 127 of which were of minors. The 2008 statistics, she said, had not yet been tallied.
"Our ministry only has statistics based on reports in the three local newspapers that report across the country. It is not a national standard, only basic data that we can use to intervene when we see some irregularities," she said.
Statistically, the problem is actually decreasing, said Lim Mony, program officer for Adhoc's statistics department. However, she said this was only due to a change in reporting methods.
"Although statistics released recently indicate a decrease, this is mainly because the government and NGOs now work separately to record the number of reports," she told the Post Wednesday.
Lim Mony said child rape was committed "mainly by relatives and neighbours, especially in the countryside where people don't have as much access to education", and that "very few" strangers committed child rape, suggesting that high-profile pedophile cases involving foreigners were in fact in the minority.
Root causes not addressed
Dr Ken Wilcox, who runs a psychology practice in Phnom Penh, said the root causes of rape and rape against minors is the "same as it would be in the West: opportunity, aggression, sexual suppression (societal issues), revenge, anger, externalisation of internal struggles" like depression or loss.
However, he believed groups working with the issue in Cambodia, unlike the West, neglected societal and long-term psychological issues - such as coping mechanisms for victims and isolation problems for the perpetrators - for more immediate relief of the situation.
"[The current approach] is not affecting the root cause of the social construction. It is not dealing with the underlying issues of both the individual and society. It is only trying to work on the problem after," he said.
"NGOs, etc, provide shelter and care and possible training for the women. Admittedly, this is an important part to treatment, but ... little work on the social issues that have now stripped this woman of her future [is being done]," he added.
Bith Kimhong, director of the Ministry of Interior's Anti-human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, said the government had begun prosecuting and arresting more people this year in relation to child rape.
"In the last two months, we have arrested seven suspects, including three US citizens, one Canadian and one German," he said. However, he added that the people who commit child rape were "mostly Cambodian men".
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEA
20 comments:
Please help Khmer children!
Stop Pouk Ah Scam Rainxy.
Will someone stop this idiot 9:55! No matter what the news story, 9:55 posts comments about Sam Rainsy. The SRP cannot be responsible for every problem affecting the Khmer people. Clearly we are seeing the manifestation of a mental illness or gross immaturity that has caused 9:55 to be obsessed (in love maybe?) with Sam Rainsy. Grow up and shut up 9:55.
9:55 PM, we know what you are trying to do by using Sam Rainsy name to get an attention. You can stop now, because people is not falling for that anymore. Actually 9:55 PM is a Sam Rainsy supporter and he is trying to use a reverse psychology to get people stired up by pretending that he is a CPP supporter. If we are Khmer and we love Khmer, we need to stop instigating to create hatred among ourselve, because Khmer had suffered enough. All Khmer need to find ways to help and build our country not pointing finger at one another, only Khmer can help Khmer. Every time we fight among each other, our neighboring countries will take an opportunity to use our weakness to their advantage to steal more of our land.
Srolanh Khmer
this is what can happen without the rule of law and its strict enforcement. wake up cambodia! use education as a weapon to tackle this kind of social problem! how about setting agency to help people who are the victims and people who need help in counseling, depression, etc... if gov't continue to ignore social problem, don't expect this kind of problem to go away anytime soon. it's call smartened up, cambodia! stop being in the stone age. adopt the rule of law as it can help to educate people to understand the more you are talking about it the better for them! don't be shy, encourage critical think in school and in society! if some aspect of culture inhibit us from talking about it, i say get rid of that system and adopt a better way so things will be better, not worst! wake up and smell the coffee! god bless cambodia.
education, education, people!!! also demand reform in gov't in order to establish a crisis center to help people all over the country. do something about it, or it won't go away! everybody can help, don't ignore this kind of problem!
Nothing to do with Sam Rainsy, you need tell the CPP on that, they are in power.
1:19am, you can't pinpoint at others like this. someone like you above is not helping the situation. it shouldn't matter who in power and so on. your inactive or not proactive attitude and wait for other to make it happen will not help cambodia, not alone society. this kind of attitude is not what cambodia as a country need! stop being selfish in your thinking like it them against us or whatever your intention in your thinking is! when i write here, i often think about the society at large, especially cambodia; people there need help from those of us who are very fortunate enough escape those situation and settled overseas; so when we see something is not right or somebody needs help, we all should try to help educate them all because not everybody in cambodia get the same opportunity we all had overseas like in america, europe, autralia and so on. once in your life and for goodness sake help to educate them all regardless of their wealth, background or what have they! even god teach us to help those less fortunate than we are because you never know, someday you too might need help too, you know! otherwise, you're thinking like above is part of the problem, not part of a solution. of course, we all can choose whether to become part of the solution or part of the problem. i hope we all will choose wisely, especially if we want cambodia to become a good, prosperous country that we all love. please think about it! me personally, i hate the politics that goes on and on in cambodia on both sides of the stories. people seems to want hate each other, or hurt each other due to whatever personal reason they may have had, and they often forget to see the benefit, the bigger picture in all of cambodia. for goodness sake, have a heart of change or a heart of god and help others or help yourself first so you can feel better and see a different point of view! god bless.
Child abuse getting more and more in Hun Sen regime. In Cambodia before never happen like this. Where is our children in our country revceive a great life, and how many mor of children vitime will be continue living in fear.
What wrong with Hun Sen government, even you are blind but you still love your own children, you do every thing to protect them. This is Kaun Khmer children.
Where is the Human society for children living in Cambodia.
i don't mean to sound like i'm trying to defend mr. hun sen administration or whatever, but i think what we see in cambodian society today was a result of the KR brutal regime because the stupid KR killed off a lot of well educated khmer people, i mean a lot had perished inhumanely and injusticely and no words can ever describe the pain and suffered good khmer people went through during those dark days. i think our society today still has a long way to become better as most people are rebuilding their lives from scratches. so, be patient and perserverant is important for cambodia as better things don't happen overnight as they say it. however, i truly believe that cambodia and our people will be better in the future when we continue to strive to become better and to improve our country ways. god bless cambodia.
Begger 9:55 and pouk ah ouknha and Hun Sen =are murder, child molester, rappist and accid attack.
Bin Ladden, George Bush, Dick Chaney= Terrorist.
China= polluter.
Thailand= Invader
Vietname= Silence murder.
Saim Ransey= Khmer Martin Luther King Jr.
Barack Obama= The chosen one.
Begger 9:55= Fuck you asshole I'm sick and tired to see you fucking comment you fucking kook. Go back to Viet Nam. Get out of our country you damn Viet Cong, Stupid Ho Chi Ming the dishwasher for French. Take Ah Kun from Sokimex Hotel at Siem Reap with you too fool.
By LOL:=)
As long we allowed pouk Ah Scam Rainxy to enter Cambodia, Children will continued to be abused, raped, and molested.
11:05AM YOUR FATHER PLUGED YOUR MOM IN THE WRONG WHOLE,WHY U SO CONFUSE CAMBODIA IT IS NOT VIET NAM.
11:05AM YOUR FATHER PLUGED YOUR MOM IN THE WRONG WHOLE,WHY U SO CONFUSE CAMBODIA IT IS NOT VIET NAM.
Bin Ladden is a radical Islam terrorist.
George Bush was chosen to fullfil the prophecy "the Fall of Babylon"
China is a dragon rising to save the world financial crisis.
Thailand is an arrogant Invader.
Vietnam is an arogant invader and killer.
Saim Ransey is Khmer Ghandi.
Barack Obama is communist-muslim fake Christain imposter, usurper, chosen by satan because americans creating too many evils like in New Orleans- practiced Voodoo, calling evils to switch souls of others. America curse.
Last this 11:05AM is Youn.
Good, let's send Ah Scam Rainxy to live with Gandhi before Khmer people become extinct from this planet.
Rainsy is Khmer and his real home is Cambodia.
Bullshit, the idiot is 90% French. Who are you trying to kid?
Talking, Talking, Talking= Non sense
children shouldn't be dressing like jonbonnet ramsey, you know! because it looks like a little lolito, the little girl who looks innocent but slutty at best! educate them all, please!
I agree with you 956AM.
Sad that the parents would dress the inocence children like that.
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