Cambodia's Burgeoning Youth Population Increasingly Seduced By The "perfect High" - Report by US Amb. Carol Rodley

Reference id 10PHNOMPENH113
Subject Cambodia's Burgeoning Youth Population Increasingly Seduced By The "perfect High"
Origin Embassy Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
Cable time Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:29 UTC
Classification UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Source http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10PHNOMPENH113.html
History First published on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:11 UTC

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RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0113/01 0480729
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170729Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1675
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHNA/DEA WASHDC 0007
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHMUNB/JIATF WESTHide headerUNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PHNOM PENH 000113

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, DRL, INL/AAE -- BRANDON NEUKOM
BANGKOK FOR DEA AND TCAO -- SCOTT ROLSTON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR [Narcotics] PGOV [Internal Governmental Affairs] PREF [Refugees] PREL [External Political Relations] ASEC [Security] EAID [Foreign Economic Assistance] CB [Cambodia]
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA'S BURGEONING YOUTH POPULATION
INCREASINGLY SEDUCED BY THE "PERFECT HIGH"

REF: A. 2009 PHNOM PENH 391 (MINI-DUBLIN)
¶B. 2009 PHNOM PENH 203 (METH BUST)

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION

¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: A recent uptick in drug use, particularly
ice - the crystallized form of methamphetamine preferred by
Cambodia's new urban elite - has resulted in increased
scrutiny of the social triggers and available treatment for
Cambodia's young population. Reported increases in teens

holding "drug parties," domestic violence, rape, and gang

activity have a potential to affect social stability and in

part have been attributed to lack of jobs, inadequate

recreational activities for the youth, the wide availability

of methamphetamines, and absence of effective drug treatment

facilities. Drug treatment centers have long been accused of
human rights abuses, and the Royal Government of Cambodia
(RGC) is just now beginning to grapple with a response. As
the youth population continues to swell and job creation
continues to diminish or stagnate, there is an acute need to
address drug dependence in Cambodia. END SUMMARY.

The Youth Problem
-----------------

¶2. (SBU) A recent Interagency Conflict Assessment revealed
that the growing youth population and low law enforcement
capacity are two of the most significant issues threatening
Cambodia's political, economic and social stability.
Cambodia enjoyed double digit economic growth over the past
decade. High growth rates have created expectations of
continued prosperity among young people in a society where
the median age is 25 and 24% of the population is between the
ages of 15 and 25. As the global economic crisis hit
Cambodia's export-driven economy, a widening gap developed
between expectations and reality. The effect struck

particularly hard on a naive Cambodian youth population who

are slowly realizing that their expectations of easy jobs and

money may be left unfulfilled. As a result, they are overly
susceptible to negative social forces, and rates of drug
abuse and illicit activity are on the rise.

¶3. (SBU) Stories of "spoiled children" running into trouble
with the law litter the local media. These same teens in
rehabilitation centers tell of selling gifts from their
parents, such as motos and jewelry, to buy drugs. One
rehabilitation resident stated he spent $1000 of his parent's

money in one month on drugs, a huge sum in a country where

the average family lives on less than a dollar a day. GDP
per capita has steadily increased over the past decade, with
only a slight drop in 2009 due to the global economic crisis.
While reliable estimates on the size of Cambodia's emerging
middle class do not exist, one of the country's leading think
tank directors believes it to be anywhere from 5-10% of the
population. For the Cambodian youth that is part of this
growing middle class, the new concept of disposable income
appears to be both seductive and dangerous.

The Silk Road to Australian drug treatment: WikiLeaks cable [-Hun Xen's nephews and nieces sent abroad for drug treatment under the guise of study?]

Thursday, 28 July 2011

By freelance writer Luke Miller

Crikey (Australia)

Rich Cambodian parents are secretly sending their drug-addicted children for detox in Australia and China to avoid the social stigma of drug use and the poor quality of rehabilitation centres in Cambodia. The details of a rising drug problem in Cambodia are buried in one of 777 US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks two weeks ago in a rare large dump of every cable from an American embassy, in this case the embassy in Phnom Penh. The country, which emerged in the 1990s from decades of civil war to become one of the region’s best performing economies, is struggling to deal with an explosion in drug use caused by Cambodia’s porous borders, indigenous drug industry, rapidly expanding young urban population and “ruthless gangster“ business elite. Under the tabloid-style heading “Burgeoning Youth Population increasingly Seduced by the ‘Perfect High’”, US ambassador Carol Rodley details stories of “drug parties”, violence, rape and “spoiled children” who spend as much as $1000 of their “parent’s money in one month on drugs, a huge sum in a country where the average family lives on less than a dollar a day”. With the use of ice, the “party drug of choice”, spreading from gangs into the mainstream community (the UN estimates “as many as half a million” drug users in the country), the medical need for treatment and rehabilitation has collided with cultural taboos over drug use. To most Cambodians, “drug use is unmentionable … and certainly does not happen among ‘good families’.”

Recovering drug addicts claim abuse in Cambodia

June 06. 2010
Jared Ferrie, Foreign Correspondent
The National (United Arab Emirate)

PHNOM PENH // They are abducted and held against their will in centres where many – some of them children – are beaten, whipped, and shocked with electric batons. These are allegations made in two recent reports about conditions in drug treatment centres in Cambodia, including one that receives funding from the United Nations’ child protection agency, Unicef.

The claims, which government officials denied, have UN agencies scrambling to come up with a cohesive response. Both UNAids and the World Health Organisation have called for all the facilities to be closed immediately, while Unicef has denied that there is abuse in Choam Chao, a youth centre to which it provided US$28,440 (Dh104,000) last year.

In late March, Unicef’s representative in Cambodia, Richard Bridle, told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that Human Rights Watch (HRW) had made a mistake when it alleged abuse of children at Choam Chao. Mr Bridle suggested that researchers had confused Choam Chao for another centre.

HRW said it made no such mistake.

The National interviewed two street youths who said they were taken by police to Choam Chao in early April, after the HRW report was released and the allegations were reported by local media. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

“They beat me twice. I used my hands to block the blows,” said one. “They beat me with a baton.”

The other boy said he was not abused, but he witnessed guards at the centre beating two boys who had scuffled during a game of football.

Other youth and adults told similar stories and worse to HRW and to researchers who contributed to a joint report made public April 27 by the Open Society Institute and the University of Melbourne. Both reports detailed systematic abuse in 11 drug treatment centres across Cambodia, including severe beatings and rape perpetrated by guards.

In light of such reports, the UNAids executive director, Michel Sidibé, wrote to HRW expressing concern that conditions in the centres would “discourage people who use drugs from accessing health services, including for drug dependence and for HIV prevention, treatment and care”.

“I believe that the centres in Cambodia should be closed,” Mr Sidibé wrote in the letter.

HRW said it received similar correspondence from the World Health Organisation, which called for the closing of all 11 centres, including the one funded in part by Unicef.

The chief of communications for Unicef’s Cambodia office, Marc Vergara, declined to comment. At the time, he said Unicef was meeting with other “partners” to discuss the response to allegations of abuse at Choam Chao and other facilities.

“We know about that, but we have decided not to comment until we have come to the end of this discussion,” he said in a telephone interview last month, adding that he did not know when the talks would conclude.

Joe Amon, HRW’s director of health and human rights, said his organisation met with Unicef staff in Cambodia, Bangkok and New York to inform them of conditions at Choam Chao long before the report was released.

“Quite honestly, I’m shocked,” Mr Amon said. “Unicef’s mandate is to protect children and they’ve had nine months to investigate the evidence we’ve provided them of the torture, arbitrary detention and forced labour of children.”

The UN’s Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) were contacted by telephone and were submitted questions by e-mail. Both agencies declined to comment.

UNODC is leading the UN’s efforts, in co-ordination with the Cambodian government, to overhaul the country’s drug treatment system. Some details of the plan were highlighted in a recent presentation given by Juana Tomas-Rossello of UNODC’s East Asia and Pacific regional office.

The $9.7-million programme plans to extend health services for drug users to communities throughout the country. Community health workers would then refer them to one or possibly two national rehabilitation centres where they would voluntarily submit to treatment. The plan has a timeframe of five to eight years, according to Dr Tomas-Rossello.

“At the same time, the UN recommends that while the new model drug dependence treatment system is being developed and the current drug detention centres remain open, compliance with Cambodia’s international human rights obligations is guaranteed,” Margaret Lamb, a spokeswoman for the office of the UN resident co-ordinator in Cambodia, said in an interview.

But human rights groups remain sceptical that conditions in drug detention centres will change without international pressure on the Cambodian government.

“When thousands of people have been abused, subject to torture and forced labour in these centres, the UN should really find the courage to plainly say that the centers should be immediately closed and those responsible for the torture held to account,” Mr Amon said.

Licadho, a local human rights group, said it provided evidence including photos of abuse at two drug detention centres to the ministry of social affairs in 2008.

“Nearly two years after, the ministry has yet to conduct a credible investigation,” said Naly Pilorge, the director of Licadho. “Quite the opposite, the ministry went on publicly rejecting undeniable evidence of unlawful detentions in the two centres and took actions to cover up the abuses.”

Kong Chhan, the deputy director general of the ministry, declined to comment on alleged abuse at detention centres, including Choam Chao, and he directed questions to the National Authority on Combating Drugs.

“In terms of my position as a government officer I say that everything’s OK in the centres,” said Neak Yuthea, the authority’s director of prevention and education. But, he added: “You can ask someone who is independent.”

Torture suspicion at the Prey Sar jail

22 November 2008
By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

24-year-old Heng Touch died Friday evening at the Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh. According to Am Sam Ath, an investigator for Licadho, his family is asking questions about the condition of his death which could be attributed to torture.

Arrested in September 2008, Heng Touch was accused of perpetrating an armed robbery. On 13 November, his family was informed by a Prey Sar jail guard, where he was incarcerated, his whereabout, and that he was “ill.” His relatives were able to see him. They reported that he had “an injury on the head, his face was swollen and he threw up blood.”

When contacted by the investigator, a prison official explained that the victim knocked his head against the walls and that he cut his own tongue. Without any autopsy performed, police experts concluded that it is impossible to indicate that the death was effectively caused by torture inside the jail.

“The family of the deceased remains skeptical. After the funeral, it will decide whether to bring up a complaint against the prison,” Am Sam Ath reported.

The Licadho investigator wishes that an independent expert committee be set up and that another committee should pursue the investigation into this case, in order to provide justice to the victim and condemn the perpetrator(s), if indeed it was a criminal case. The investigator also blamed the prison director for neglecting to provide medical care to the agonizing prisoner.