Rescuing Children from Sexual Slavery in Cambodia

Brian McConaghy with Ratanak staff working with children in Cambodia's brothel districts.

Feb 7, 2012
The Province (British Columbia, Canada)

As a former RCMP forensics investigator, Brian McConaghy has visited hundreds of crime scenes and heard the stories of countless victims of violence and abuse. But nothing has ever disturbed quite like the horrors of Cambodia’s child sexual exploitation trade.

The Richmond father of two has dedicated his life to rescuing children from brothels, saving them abject sexual slavery with his charity, Ratanak International.

McConaghy first visited the South Asian country in 1989, when it was still struggling in the aftermath of a genocidal civil war. At the time, he was working for the police and in his spare time helping vulnerable international students adjust to Canada, and he made a trip to several Asian countries to better understand their cultures.

While on visit to Thailand, he was shocked to see conditions in a refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border, where diseases like dysentry and tuberculosis were rampant. Cambodian children there were dying from a lack of basic medicine from conditions that were simple to treat.

Journalists Reveal Horrors of Treatment of Women

Thursday, December 2nd 2010

Two teenage girls in the room they share in a brothel run by Sav Channa. (Photo: Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times)

By Anastasiya Matsveyenka
Midwood High School
Adviser: Catherine Kaczmarek
First place, Arts/Entertainment
New York Daily News

Srey Rath, a 15 year old Cambodian girl, wanted to earn money for her family by washing dishes in Thailand. Instead, the man who promised her the job sold her into a brothel, where fighting back just meant more beatings and rape.

Woineshet Zebene, a 13 year old girl from Ethiopia, was peacefully sleeping in her hut, when four men stormed in and kidnapped her. Battering and raping went on for two days until she finally escaped. Upon her return to the village, she was expected to marry one of her rapists, Aberew Jemma.

Dina, a 17 year old from Kindu, Congo, was returning home from her farm, when five militia men surrounded her. They told her, if she screamed, she will be dead. All five of them, one after the other raped her. When she was pinned down, one of the men forced a stick inside her.

What do all of these stories have in common? Oppression of women.

Whether it’s a mother killing her baby girl because she believes girls are unlucky, or a militia man thinking that he has the right to rape any woman he desires, tyranny towards females exists. The trick is not to only change the law, but to change people’s points of view through education.

Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times journalist and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, former NY Times journalist and editor, portray in their new nonfiction book, Half the Sky, how, if given the opportunity, women can shine even in the darkest corners of life.

The title is part of an ancient Chinese proverb: Women hold up half the sky. I’m guessing the other half lies on the shoulders of men. When either side falls, it’s harder for those who are still standing. Just like the 13 colonies – ‘United we stand, divided we fall’.

The shock of statistics in each chapter is personalized with an individual story giving the whole book a more humane feeling. Photographs of women and girls throughout the book make reading their life trials feel as though they are right beside me.

Kristof compares oppression of women to slavery. Just like there was a beginning for equality with the Emancipation Proclamation, this could possibly be the beginning for emancipating women and girls worldwide. The quote in chapter two in Half the Sky cleverly analyzes slavery. “Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself,” said Abraham Lincoln.

Kristof came into a brothel in western Cambodia and pretended he was a customer. The woman pimp sold him a girl, Srey Neth, for $150 and gave him a receipt. What shocked me the most was when I realized over the weekend I found this amazing pair of shoes for $145, which I didn’t purchase. If I bought them I would have my shoes and a receipt, and Kristof bought a human being for almost the same price and has a receipt. I can’t wrap my head around the idea that I can buy a woman for $150 and own her.

Of course Kristof bought Srey Neth and another girl, Srey Momm, for $203 only so they can go back to their families. Unfortunately, buying them is the easy part. Because girls are usually dependent on drugs that pimps give them, they return to the brothels voluntarily..

Compared to the prenatal care in the U.S., where practically every inch is though out and planned even before the pregnancy, for many women in Africa becoming pregnant is a death sentence. One woman dies of childbirth around the world every minute.

Every person should read this book. It’s not only inspiring but also real because while reading I wanted some parts to be surreal. All these women, who survived rape, beatings, acid burns, fistulas, and more, and are still able to not give up and turn their horrific experience into strength - truly hold up half the sky.

America's Most Wanted Goes Undercover In Cambodia [...to be aired on FOX in the US]

2010-11-11
By Kelly West
CinemaBlend.com

In what sounds like a relatively horrifying episode, this Saturday America’s Most Wanted will feature host John Walsh as he goes undercover in Cambodia to expose international sex trafficking.

It's an unfortunate reality that sex-related crimes are a global epidemic and this Saturday, America's Most Wanted will be visiting Cambodia to investigate pedophilia crimes taking place at a notorious bar. Fox released some information on the special today, revealing that in addition to Walsh’s undercover venture in Southeast Asia, the episode will also include information on American sex predators that are still at large. The episode will air on Saturday, Nov. 13 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Below is the full description for the episode as provided by Fox.

AMERICA’S MOST WANTED cameras go undercover in Cambodia, a nation targeted by pedophiles because the abject poverty there has made it distressingly easy to “buy” underage children. Working with international law enforcement agencies, Walsh investigates a notorious Phnom Penh bar to see firsthand how young girls are offered to foreign visitors and visits a Cambodian prison to confront jailed Westerners accused of preying upon children.

Walsh also talks to Somaly Mam, a tireless advocate who has dedicated her life to rescuing Cambodia’s children from the sex trade. A sex-crime victim as a child, Mam operates a center for other victimized children, offering them hope for the future.

In the episode, Walsh will ask viewers to get involved in the fight against predators by helping him track down several American pedophiles profiled during the broadcast.

Law puts girls at risk in Cambodia

Oct 18, 2010
By Laurinda Luffman
SOS Children

Across Asia, an estimated 10 million girls and women work in prostitution selling sex to around 75 million men. The regional director of UNAIDS in the Asia Pacific has expressed concern that many are being put at risk of infection from HIV/AIDS because of laws outlawing sex work. Worried about being arrested, many women are fearful to be found with condoms, let alone seek legal or medical help when they need it.

In Cambodia, policemen believe it is one of their duties to arrest sex workers. Even though possession of condoms is unlikely to be accepted as evidence in court, having condoms can be a factor in a woman’s arrest. According to a July report from Human Rights Watch, even those who distribute condoms can now be implicated in illegal sex acts. UNAIDS is worried such policies will discourage the use of condoms to protect against HIV/AIDS. Ironically, in Cambodia, the law specifically criminalises HIV transmission and exposure.

The situation in Cambodia used to be very different. A few years ago, the country introduced a 100 percent ‘Condom Use Programme’ which required condoms to be made available for sex workers and allowed for selective enforcement of anti-sex work laws. But in 2008, a new law against sex-trafficking was introduced in Cambodia. This resulted in the closure of most brothels and sent the sex industry underground.

According to a recent BBC documentary, there are an estimated 100,000 sex workers active in Cambodia today. Around one third of these are thought to be girls under the age of eighteen. Since brothels were closed, many girls now work in clubs and bars, where they dance on stages to be selected by male clients. Although the legal age for girls working in these bars is meant to be sixteen, many Cambodian girls start much younger and it is not uncommon to find thirteen or fourteen-year olds in the bars.

In the capital Phnom Penh, the BBC film crew found eighteen-year old Alang, who had been sold into the sex industry at thirteen. Alang’s aunt said she was taking her to the city to study, but instead the girl was sold into the sex industry and kept in a hotel for male clients. Even though Alang escaped more than once from the men who first bought her, she still works as a prostitute. With little formal education, Alang has no other way to support herself, though she wishes there was a way to escape her life in the industry.

As well as lobbying governments over how sex trade laws are being implemented, non-governmental agencies and charitable organisations try to offer support to vulnerable girls. But it is not always easy, particularly when children are often sold into the sex trade by their own families. And with an estimated 500,000 dollars spent every night by Cambodian men in the red light district of Phnom Penh, clearly there is no shortage of demand.

Man goes undercover to combat child sex slavery

February 9, 2010
By Leif Coorlim, CNN Producer

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NGO: As many as 30 percent of sex workers in Cambodia are children
• U.S. official: Cambodia not making enough progress to combat trafficking
• Aaron Cohen helps free trafficking victims around the world
• One girl he rescued dies; family says death due to impact of sex work

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Aaron Cohen first met Jonty Thern and her older sister, Channy, in 2005 while singing in a karaoke bar in Battambang, Cambodia. He has come back to see them every year since.

The California native often schedules his trips for November, the month when Cambodians celebrate the Bonn Om Teuk water festival, marking the end of the rainy season.

"The whole country comes together for boat races. Hundreds of thousands of people descend on the waterfront and it's filled with colors and flags," said Cohen. "You know my thoughts about the water festival always include Jonty, because she and her sister would get a day pass during the festival."

There was a smile on his face when he started the sentence, but by the time he had finished, it was gone.

Abolishing slavery

Cohen is a human rights advocate. He founded a charity called AbolishSlavery.org last year, but his work freeing victims of human trafficking began more than a decade ago.

At 6'5" (195 cm) with long, black hair, he stands out in almost every crowd. But Cohen often goes undercover to obtain the information needed for law enforcement officials to conduct raids and make arrests.

His trips have taken him around the world, from Sudan to Nicaragua to Israel. But, he says, in Southeast Asia the problem is especially bad.

"I would rank Cambodia right up there with India as one of the worst places in the world for sex-trafficking."

A bad problem getting worse

According to the NGO, End Child Prostitution, Abuse and Trafficking (ECPAT), as many as one-third of all sex workers in Cambodia are children. Government entities, including the U.S. State Department, are pressuring countries like Cambodia to do more to stop the modern-day slavery epidemic.

"We are making major strides in the fight against human trafficking. But it is a major problem, we know that," said Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who leads the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. "You have estimates as to the number of people in servitude worldwide and it's anywhere from 12.3 million on the low end as cited by UN's International Labour Organization -- to as many as 27 million people on the high end. That's a number coming from the research done by (the aid organization) Free the Slaves. But 12.3 million is a baseline number that everybody agrees that there are at least that many people in forced labor, and that's far too many."

In its comprehensive 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, the State Department put Cambodia on its Tier 2 Watch List. The ranking means the Cambodian government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making an effort to do so.

"[In Cambodia] the number of victims is increasing and the number of prosecutions has gone down from the previous year," says CdeBaca. "The report shows that despite the overall effort, the government has not shown enough progress in convicting and punishing human trafficking offenders or protecting trafficking victims."

Cambodia is categorized as a destination country for foreign child sex tourists, with increasing reports of Asian men traveling to Cambodia in order to have sex with underage virgin girls. The State Department report states a significant proportion of trafficking victims in Cambodia are ethnic Vietnamese women and girls who are forced into prostitution in brothels and karaoke bars.

A chance encounter

Jonty Thern's short life could be a case study for that assessment. Jonty's family immigrated to Cambodia from Vietnam shortly after the Vietnam War.

Faced with gripping poverty and a debt, Jonty's mother sold her daughter, who was 10-years-old at the time, to a person on Cambodia's border with Thailand.

That person told her mother Jonty would be selling flowers and candy to customers in bars and nightclubs. It was only later, the mother says, that she learned while there, Jonty would be repeatedly raped and beaten.

After three years of physical and sexual abuse, Jonty was released by her captors and allowed to return home to Battambang. Soon after, she and her sister willingly went to work at a karaoke bar to help the family pay off their debt, according to her parents.

The scenario in which Cohen describes meeting Jonty Thern, then 13-years-old, is as appalling as it is prevalent.

"I was working as an undercover sex vice," Cohen said. "I was posing as a sex tourist, going from karaoke bar to karaoke bar, massage parlor to massage parlor, looking for underage workers, to see if I could get them on camera soliciting me for sex."

As evidenced in the State Department report, it is a poorly-kept secret in Cambodia that many of these establishments are also operating brothels.

"I went to a number of karaokes and about my second or third karaoke of the night and I immediately notice this one really young looking girl. I requested Jonty and her sister and a group of other girls," Cohen said.

"In these bars, the girls are told to drink as much as they can, because they'll charge you for the beers. So this girl comes in and I noticed, man, she downed that beer in like 2 seconds. She seemed to be having a good time, she didn't seem unhappy or anything. But here she is nonetheless, a 13-year-old girl in a brothel drinking 10 beers in the time that I drank two," he added.

He said he invited several friends who work at a nearby victims' shelter to come join him. They posed as partiers as well, until Cohen felt comfortable to ask the manager an important question.

"After the girls began to dance and sing, I asked the mamasan what more can I get besides karaoke and so then she says 'well, for sex it's $50.'"

Cohen used the solicitation video from that night, recorded on a cell phone camera, to provide police with the information they needed to raid the karaoke brothel.

More than a dozen girls, including Jonty and her sister, Channy, were freed that night and sent to live in a victim's shelter, where they received counseling, care and an education.

Final Respects

Cohen's most recent trip to see Jonty and Channy in Cambodia was not a happy reunion. It was a trip planned so that he could say goodbye to one of them.

Three days before arriving in Phnom Penh for the water festival, Cohen and Channy, along with Channy's mother, spent the morning in an 8th century pagoda in Siem Reap, watching as monks conducted an ancient funeral ceremony. They were transferring Jonty Thern's ashes into a marble urn.

Jonty died of liver failure at age 17. Her family claims it was the result of years of alcohol and drug abuse she was subjected to while working first in the nightclubs as a 10-year-old, and then later in the karaoke bars.

"The ashes of my goddaughter are the symbol of why we have to do this. This doesn't have to happen. These girls do not have to be enslaved," Cohen said.

"We tried our best with Jonty and we failed because we lost her. But if there's meaning in her death, the meaning is that there is more work to be done. When I'm in that karaoke now, or when I'm in that massage parlor, she's my little angel. She's watching over me and she's protecting me," he added.

That evening, after watching the festival's fireworks display and saying goodnight to Channy, Cohen strapped an undercover watch camera to his wrist, and went to a karaoke bar.

Rescue Mission

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Child sex trade soars in Cambodia

Al Jazeera's investigation found underage girls working in brothel's around Phnom Penh

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Al Jazeera

Girls as young as 14 work in brothels' around Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, and while the industry is often shown as serving predatory foreign tourists, local men have been found to be the mainstay of clients.

Thousands of children are bought and sold for sex every day in Cambodia an investigation by Al Jazeera found.

Al Jazeera filmed secretly at several brothels, and in each case found much the same thing - rooms full of young women in their early twenties, as well as teenagers.

"For my virginity they gave me $200," Ya Da, a 16-year-old former prostitute, said.

Ya Da worked in a brothel for two years before she ran away. Now, she lives in a safe house with other former prostitutes and abused children.

"There were just a few foreign customers [at the brothel]," she said. "I never slept with any, I slept only with Cambodian men."

'Local customers'

Mu Sochua, a politician with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and a former minister for women's affairs, told Al Jazeera that most of Cambodia's sex industry was supported "by local customers".

"And some of these local customers are high-ranking officials. You have the military, the police and civil servants. you have rich businessmen who have lots of money," she said.

The involvement of high-ranking officials has been one reasons, NGOs say, that the sex industry has thrived in Cambodia.

"Very often these brothels and criminal networks are being supported and protected by high ranking officials," Mark Capaldi, from Ecpat International, an orgnaisation working to eliminate child prostitution, said.

"The problem is not just as abusers but also the impunity and lack of law enforcement in closing down these brothels and karaoke bars."

Daniela Reale, an advisor from Save the Children, told Al Jazeera: "The reality is that we do know local demand is the force driving this abuse.

"We also know it is around 70 per cent of local demand rather than sex tourism."

But General Bith Kim Hong, from the Cambodian national police force, rejected allegations that the officials focused their efforts to curb prostitution almost exclusively on foreigners.

"The national police are concerned about anyone who commits a crime, who has sex with children, whether they are foreigners or Cambodian," he told Al Jazeera.

"We have a very high commitment to prevent child prostitution."

Few arrests

Last year, the Cambodian police arrested only 21 people for committing sex crimes with children - eight of those arrested were foreigners and 13 were Cambodians.

The police also admit that the brothels they shut down in high-profile raids often reopen a few weeks later.

In 2002, Gary Glitter, the British pop star, was expelled from Cambodia amid child-sex allegations.

But while the arrest and conviction of foreigners make the headlines, most child sex trafficking supplies local demand, Mu Sochua said.

"It is easier to catch a foreigner and also the government wants to have showcases to make itself look good - that Cambodia is actually taking care of this problem of human trafficking, which is really not the truth," she told Al Jazeera.

Reale said that governments need to combat the worldwide problem: "They need to address their legal system and their law enforcement."

To tackle the poverty that forces girls into prostitution, Reale said that governments must provide support systems to help families match their needs.

She said that the 3rd World Conference on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro next month will be as a big opportunity to make real and genuine committments.

LCCS student on mission to combat Cambodia’s sex trade

Anna Doneson

Fri May 23, 2008
By Erin Frost

The Lincoln Courier (Illinois, USA)

Lincoln, Ill. - Lincoln Christian College and Seminary freshman Anna Doneson is on a mission. And that mission will take her to Cambodia within the month.

Doneson is involved with Rapha House, an organization that creates safe houses for girls involved in sex trafficking.

“We get girls from their parents, buy them from pimps, get them from brothels,” Doneson said. “We teach them life skills and we get them a job. We give them a new life and a new hope and everything.”

Doneson is currently working with several local organizations to raise money for the project.

She has hosted several fundraisers over the past month, including one Monday at Culver’s that she said had a very good turnout. Her final shot at raising money will be May 31 at Zamrazil Hair Studio, where a donation will get clients a free haircut.

“This is a fundraiser to help me get over there, and the rest will go to the girls,” she said.

Doneson plans to be in Cambodia from June 8 to June 23.

“The goal is to take a group of students over there to get a taste of what it’s like,” she said.

While in Cambodia, Doneson will be working to make Rapha House bigger and better as well as to extend its mission.

Rapha House is an organization “committed to rescuing young girls who are victims of slavery and prostitution and providing them with a safe home where they can heal and receive an education,” according to the organization’s Web site.
“Rapha” is the Hebrew word for “healing.”

Its parent organization, American Rehabilitation Ministries, recently received official Non-Government Organization status from the Kingdom of Cambodia, meaning they were given the freedom to build a house in Cambodia for their rescued girls.

Rapha House had operated without government recognition since 2001.

Rapha’s girls currently live in a rented house with a Cambodian staff consisting of around-the-clock dorm mothers and security guards.

“Some of the girls who will be coming to Rapha House have experienced extreme verbal abuse,” said ARM President Joe Garman.

“The majority of them are younger than 18 and lack proper hygiene. They will suffer from an array of mental disorders, depression, alcohol and drug addiction, fear of being kidnapped again, low self-esteem, rebellious and suicidal tendencies, sexually transmitted diseases, skepticism and suspicion.

“Treating their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual needs will be a lengthy process and monumental task; but rescuing, rehabilitating, and redeeming these victims of prostitution is the work of God.”

People can find out more about Rapha House by visiting www.arm.org and clicking on the link for Rapha House on the left.

Girls you can sell over and over again

Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Oreganian (Oregon, USA)

On a January day in 2004, 14-year-old Ashley Pond came home and told her parents how much she was enjoying her sophomore year at Rocklin High School, just north of Sacramento. "She never wanted to move from Rocklin," her father recalled. "She wanted to live there forever."

The following night, Ashley and the rest of the family -- her parents, James and Athena, and two younger siblings -- sat down and watched a "Dateline" NBC special, "Children for Sale," on Cambodia's sex traffic in children.

Then they held a team meeting on how to respond to what they'd seen. What the Ponds decided changed everything, not only for Ashley but for at least another 97 teenage girls on the other side of the world.

This is a story about a family and a ministry and an international tragedy . . . and I wouldn't be surprised if a few readers are struggling to focus right about now. That name -- Ashley Pond -- still paralyzes so many of us who were living in the Portland area in 2002, when she and Miranda Gaddis disappeared in Oregon City, the final victims of Ward Weaver.

The two Ashley Ponds were the same age. But while the Ashley who died in Oregon endured years of sexual abuse, much of it at the hands of her biological father, the Ashley who grew up in California is the daughter of parents so determined to stop the prostitution and rape of children in Southeast Asia that they moved their family to Cambodia in 2005.

James Pond had a background in intelligence and special operations with the Marines. His experience with drug interdiction helped him to understand what's driving the country's $30 billion industry in human trafficking and sex slavery.

"The traffickers I've met personally have a moral ambivalence that's clouded by how lucrative it is," Pond said. "Drugs and guns you can only sell once. People you can sell over and over again."

After several months in Cambodia, the Ponds decided the greatest need was a sanctuary in which the victims of the sex trade, virgins at 12 and veterans at 15, could begin the recovery process.

A place where they could receive medical care for their sexually transmitted diseases and dental work on the teeth that had been knocked out by the most zealous of the American sex tourists. A safe house in Phnom Penh where the girls could be tutored in 21st century job skills.

So it was that James and Athena Pond formed Transitions Cambodia, an Oregon-based nonprofit designed to provide freedom and hope for victims of abuse and exploitation. To benefit their work, special screenings of the film "Holly," which stars Ron Livingston, Chris Penn and Thuy Nguyen, will be 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Hollywood Theater.

James Pond estimates there are 27 million victims of the human slave trade in the world; 97 emotionally and physically battered girls have entered their program. Because many of the girls are 14 or 15, and "still in their prime," Pond said, "we've had traffickers pursue some of them. But there is so much residual product that they've decided why go after those girls when you can just recondition a new one."

And while the Cambodian government has finally grown embarrassed that it's the hub of the world sex trade, Pond said, Chinese and Korean mobsters are moving in, muscling out the local brothel owners and forming VIP clubs for government officials, "which in reality are high-class, high-security commercial sex operations."

Yet he holds on to the same hope he's offering the girls in the face of the brutality that has haunted his family since that January night in 2004. It's a cruel and vicious world, as many Ashley Ponds out there know, and you can only hope to change it one life, one girl, at a time.

Perv took my virginity for £250

Exploited ... 12-year-old Kiet (Photo: Marc Giddings, The Sun)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Sun (UK)

THE sickening trade in child sex is flourishing worldwide as paedophiles pursue their evil desires at the expense of the most vulnerable members of society. On Day Two of our special investigation into this sordid sex market, SHARON HENDRY relates from Cambodia the harrowing accounts of two innocent young lives defiled by perverts.

Kiet's story

DRESSED in a “teddy” T-shirt and chattering on her mobile phone, 12-year-old Kiet strolls along the pavement of her local town centre.

But Kiet is not out shopping or on her way to meet friends – she is touting for business as a prostitute.

This is the reality of life for thousands of children in the former war-torn Cambodia, where the average annual wage is less than £175 and life expectancy a mere 59 years.

It has made the country a haven for Western paedophiles who exploit the hungry street children, some as young as five.

Brits are among those who cruise bars such as Dolls’ House, Kit Kat and DV8 – the most notorious being pop star Gary Glitter who was deported from the country in 2002 over child sex offences.

Kiet works the streets of a notorious slum area in the capital Phnom Penh. Along with her 14-year-old sister, she quit her job in a garment factory and made the ten-hour bus journey to the city from her village home.

Kiet’s youthful appearance is a precious commodity for local pimps. Speaking in soft tones, she explains how a Western tourist bought her virginity for £250.

I was very nervous because I had never had sex with anyone before or even kissed a boy properly but my pimp told me there was a man prepared to take my virginity for £250.

It was more money than I could earn in months in my old job stitching clothes in a big factory so I had no choice.

The man was kind to me but afterwards I felt like crying because I had always hoped I would first have sex with someone I loved. It was also very painful.

I was allowed to keep that money but now I have to hand over half my earnings to the owner of my brothel. I am expected to get at least four or five clients a day at £5 a time. Some of the other girls have told me horrible stories about how they are treated by some of the men but I am hoping it won’t happen to me.

Srey Mom's story

Tricked ... Srey Mom (Photo: Marc Giddings, The Sun)

THIRTEEN was horribly unlucky for Srey Mom. That is how old she was when she was forced into the sex industry.

The country girl had become separated from her family and was taken to the country’s capital, allegedly to be reunited with her mother.

But there was to be no reunion – Srey Mom was sold to a brothel.

Now 20, she works for a charity warning girls about the Cambodian child sex industry. This is her story.

The brothel owner told me I had been sold to them and I would have to work as a prostitute.

When I refused, they put me in a dark room with no food and water and gave me electric shocks by tying wire around my body and plugging the live ends into the mains supply.

Eventually, I decided to accept customers. I would have sex with between five and 20 per day.

Most of my customers were from places like Britain and America. Lots of them took Viagra so they wanted sex several times.

Sick

There were about 50 girls in the brothel and we were told to charge £2.50 for quick sex.

I hated having sex with strangers – some of them smelled terrible and I was often in a lot of pain.

After a few months, I became very sick and when I could no longer work, the brothel owner sent me to the hospital.

The blood test showed I was HIV positive.

I begged men to use condoms when sleeping with me but most refused and I couldn’t tell them I had HIV because I needed the money to eat.

One day, a taxi driver offered to take me to a hospital which he said would take care of me. During my recovery I met someone from the charity World Vision. They supported me with hospital fees, clothing and even got me antiretroviral drugs.

Later, they asked me to work for them. Now I give talks to groups of girls warning them not to be tricked into prostitution like I was.

In Kampong Speu, a Familiar Tale of Trafficking [... and corruption]

Suon Kanika, VOA Khmer
Original report from Kampong Speu
05 November 2007

SK was a young girl when a 30-year-old woman convinced her to travel out of her home province to look for work. But, after she'd lost her mother's jewelry as payment for the trip, SK was sold into Phnom Penh's sex trade.

SK, who asked that her name not be used, became part of Cambodia's vibrant sex industry, forced to take drugs and "perform services for guests" of a karaoke parlor.

She would take little pink pills and see up to four men each night and only escaped by jumping out a window and calling her father to come and get her.

Now 15, SK is safe at home in Kampong Speu, but her family is filing suit with provincial authorities to bring her abductors to justice and appealing to the government to do more to stop trafficking.

"I lived at that karaoke place for 26 days," SK told VOA Khmer recently. "I was miserable, and I was ashamed. I wanted to commit suicide.... I now think my life has no value, and no future. I think it is my bad karma."

Human trafficking in sex and labor continues to plague Cambodia. SK's story highlights an industry that new laws have so far been able to eradicate. Young girls from the provinces still fall prey to recruiters, who promise legitimate work to the naive and desperate and have little fear of the law.

"We have to solve the issue legally," Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho, told VOA Khmer. "The perpetrators will have to be charged. When the police, the courts arrest them and then free them, claiming lack of evidence, it is wrong. The perpetrators must be punished according to the law."

Many victims of sex trafficking report similar hopelessness, and they often blame themselves or feel their lives are irreparably damaged. But Kek Galabru said women like SK are victims and must be helped.

"We must not think she did something wrong or has bad karma," she said. "They did something illegal to her and violated her rights."

SK said the owner boasted to clients that she was "new," worth $50 per session.

"I have a request, especially to Prime Minister Hun Sen," SK's father said. "Please help us. If we go to the police, the police just take money and don't work for us. If we go to the court, the court just takes the money and doesn't work for us. When we ask, they say, 'tomorrow,' then 'the day after tomorrow.'"

This had left him feeling hopeless as well, the father said.

"The perpetrators are walking with their hands dangling, complacent, and not afraid at all," he said. "I would like justice for my child, who is a victim, to pay for her compensation and have them punished according to existing law."

SK's lawyer, Heng Poung, said he phoned Kampong Speu's deputy prosecutor, Ou Phat, who claimed charges have been filed with the provincial court.

He expected the sex traffickers to be brought before a judge, Heng Poung said.

The law on human trafficking now says that such perpetrators—anyone who coerces, tricks, or cajoles another person into the sex trade of other forced labor—can face up to 15 years in prison.

Southeast Asia's sordid secret [-especially in Cambodia]

A myriad of factors means the exploitation of children for sex is thriving across the region

Thursday November 01, 2007
Story by LYNNE O'DONNELL
Bangkok Post

The arrest in Thailand of a Canadian man suspected of having sex with young boys has focused international attention on a sordid industry that peddles children to paedophiles across Southeast Asia. Grinding poverty, poor policing and no shortage of demand ensure that exploitation of children for sex thrives throughout the region.

Despite some high-profile prosecutions of child sex abusers, experts say lack of cooperation among governments is hindering efforts to keep children safe from paedophilia.

The arrest of teacher Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was the culmination of an unprecedented appeal from Interpol for public help in finding him.

Mr Neil is accused of sexually assaulting 12 boys and posting 200 pictures of the crimes on the internet.

His case is the latest to draw attention to the fact that children are readily available in Southeast Asia for sexual predators who travel from the West for the sole purpose of having sex with minors.

Probably the highest profile offender is former rock star Gary Glitter - real name Paul Francis Gadd - now in a Vietnamese prison convicted of committing obscene acts with two girls, then aged 11 and 12.

Campaign groups say much of the demand for child sex is homegrown and accuse authorities of often turning a blind eye, or even colluding in the abuse.

Lack of public awareness is compounded by lack of data, and punishments are rarely harsh enough to act as a deterrent.

Even those caught and sentenced can often have their punishments downgraded by paying off their victims and accusers, experts say.

''There is a lack of awareness in the general public, and there is a lack of awareness among certain government officials,'' said Alexander Kruger, a child protection specialist at Unicef in Thailand.

In Indonesia, authorities do not see the children as victims but prosecute them as illegal sex workers, said Arist Merdeka Sirait, who heads the National Commission for Child Protection group.

Indonesia has had a national action plan in place since 2000, and an anti-human trafficking law was introduced in 2006.

But experts say that even where laws exist, implementation is often ineffective.

Mr Sirait estimates that about 40,000-70,000 Indonesian children fall into the sex trade each year, two thirds of them trafficked abroad, while the group Ecpat, which campaigns against child prostitution, says Vietnamese children are being sent to Cambodia, China, Malaysia and Taiwan for abuse.

After decades as a haven for child sex tourists, Cambodia is cracking down, arresting or deporting at least two dozen foreigners since 2003.

But the country's most notorious child sex market, a brothel village near Phnom Penh allegedly closed in 2004, still operates, albeit driven underground and more difficult to monitor.

Cambodians make up a large percentage of paedophiles, according to rights groups in the field, but domestic paedophilia is treated as an ordinary crime rather than a social problem.

Australia and Japan, sources of child sex tourists, have dealt with the issue in vastly different ways.

In Japan, criticised as the world's main producer of underage pornography, the number of prosecutions involving child prostitution and pornography has risen in recent years - peaking at 1,080 cases in the first half of last year.

But, said Keiko Saito, a Tokyo-based Ecpat official: ''The government has done nothing to stop sex tourists from Japan.''

One Japanese man was sentenced to prison after having sex with a 15-year-old Cambodian girl and posting pictures on his homepage last year but his sentence was suspended after he paid the girl compensation.

By contrast, Australia introduced laws in 1994 allowing Australians engaging in child sex overseas to be prosecuted at home, with jail terms of up to 17 years.

The Philippines has one of Asia's most widely-used anti-child prostitution laws which has led to the arrest and conviction of child molesters and paedophiles.

Rights groups estimate there are around 1.5 million street children, of whom more than 30,000 have been prostituted, in many cases by their parents.