Suspected paedophile held forth on sex trade
Wednesday, 05 May 2010
By Crann Chamroeun and Maggie Chen
Phnom Penh Post
AN American serving pretrial detention on charges of possessing child pornography and purchasing child prostitution from four teenaged boys had been the subject of an investigation by the child rights NGO Action Pour Les Enfants for more nearly two years, its director said Tuesday.
During that same period, Alan Arthur Perry, who was arrested Friday, engaged in an online spat with a local blog over the nature of the child sex trade in Cambodia, which he described as overly reported.
In March of last year, Perry wrote a letter to the online news site Hawaii Reporter in response to a Voice of America article about human trafficking, which he described as “misleading and uninformed”. The letter reads in part: “With daily breathless reportage on human trafficking and child sex convictions, one is left with the mistaken impression that Cambodia is a place where one can simply walk down the street and pick out your favorite 13-year-old girl or boy for an hours [sic] pleasure. That is simply not the case.”
Perry, who runs the Deva Raja Villa Hotel in Sihanoukville, added: “I first came to Cambodia 15 years ago and now have lived here for 2 years and own a business. In all that time I have never witnessed any such activity nor could I direct anyone to any place which deals in such a thing.”
The blog Khmerization, which publishes daily news on Cambodia, published a severely critical response, arguing that the article had “shown that [Perry] is purely ignorant of the state of affairs of human trafficking and sex trades in Cambodia”.
In a reply, Perry said the blog had “obviously misunderstood the meaning or chose to misconstrue my words”.
Samleang Seila, APLE’s country director, said the group had been unable to find sufficienct evidence against Perry during its two-year investigation because he had been very “cunning”.
Be Sovanna, chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, said his office’s investigation had begun just last month.
Preah Sihanouk prosecutor Bou Bunhang said a hearing in Perry’s case had not been scheduled.
During that same period, Alan Arthur Perry, who was arrested Friday, engaged in an online spat with a local blog over the nature of the child sex trade in Cambodia, which he described as overly reported.
In March of last year, Perry wrote a letter to the online news site Hawaii Reporter in response to a Voice of America article about human trafficking, which he described as “misleading and uninformed”. The letter reads in part: “With daily breathless reportage on human trafficking and child sex convictions, one is left with the mistaken impression that Cambodia is a place where one can simply walk down the street and pick out your favorite 13-year-old girl or boy for an hours [sic] pleasure. That is simply not the case.”
Perry, who runs the Deva Raja Villa Hotel in Sihanoukville, added: “I first came to Cambodia 15 years ago and now have lived here for 2 years and own a business. In all that time I have never witnessed any such activity nor could I direct anyone to any place which deals in such a thing.”
The blog Khmerization, which publishes daily news on Cambodia, published a severely critical response, arguing that the article had “shown that [Perry] is purely ignorant of the state of affairs of human trafficking and sex trades in Cambodia”.
In a reply, Perry said the blog had “obviously misunderstood the meaning or chose to misconstrue my words”.
Samleang Seila, APLE’s country director, said the group had been unable to find sufficienct evidence against Perry during its two-year investigation because he had been very “cunning”.
Be Sovanna, chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, said his office’s investigation had begun just last month.
Preah Sihanouk prosecutor Bou Bunhang said a hearing in Perry’s case had not been scheduled.
3 comments:
From his letter to the Hawaii Reporter, Alan Perry look like a pedophile and sex maniac. Congratulations to Khmerization for exposing this devil.
I have read Perry's letter to the Hawaii Reporter, and once again I see that he prefers to tread the line of those Westerners who have played the Cambodia's corrupt system to their advantage: "You are not allowed to criticise unless you live here, and if you were to live here, then you would know that the Police, the Government, are exemplary". This line has been used by a small number of businessmen in order to protect their own interests. It is disappointing to see that instead of bringing their ideas and values to drag the system up, they have instead chosen to let the system drag them down to a level where they can no longer see the existence of child prostitution, of grinding poverty, of pervasive corruption, of violence against women. To them, Cambodia is just a place to fulfill their own fantasies, be that sexual or financial. And the present system in Cambodia allows them to do that. No wonder this small minority is so willing to defend the regime.
In Samleag Seila word of using ''cunning'' . There must be more than one million Cambodian men that are also ''cunning '' because she has not caught them yet.
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