Her virginity was part of the allure, but surely that is
irrelevant. This was a child sold by her parents to be raped by a sex
offender. Unfathomable.
Danet describes Michael Leach - her
convicted abuser, a former government advisor - as “big and cruel
looking”. She says: “He didn’t look nice, he looked strange.”
The 54 year old is now serving a twelve year jail sentence, so she is less afraid to talk about him.
“I hope he stays put away forever,” she says.
Selling
her virginity - her innocence - was a way to feed nine children and pay
their debts. Danet's father earns $5 a day as a motorbike taxi driver
and fruit seller.
Her mother was approached and coaxed into the
deal by a “broker”, a local driver, who worked for Leach to appease his
urge to abuse minors.
“My mother took me there on the first day. The next, my father drove me there. I didn’t want to go but I had to, for my family.”
A mother and a father escorted their child to be raped.
“I
couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I understood his body
language and that he wanted me to take my clothes off. I’m not angry at
[my mother]. We are poor and in debt. That’s why she did it to me."
Michael Leach was jailed for 12 years in 2011 (Reuters/Corbis)
Her father assures us: "We will never do it again, no matter how poor we are. Even if we have nothing to eat. Even if we have to eat soil. We won't sell our child again. I feel great pity for my daughter.”
But
the deed has been done. There is no going back, and his daughter cannot
and will not recount her ordeal again. Danet says simply: “It makes me
sad.”
The ‘virginity trade’ is rampant in Cambodia, particularly
in the capital, and is “a big problem”, says Tim Huon from Action Pour
Les Enfants (APLE), a non-governmental organisation that investigates
child sex abuse and exploitation here.
Ordinarily, ‘virgin buying’
is popular among “rich, powerful Asian men who believe that if they
have sex with a virgin it will bring them good health and good luck, and
some think that it will even cure diseases, like HIV”, Mr Huon
explains.
This business is often conducted in the city’s karaoke
bars where teenage girls work as hostesses, or in brothels. But the
trade is burying itself deeper underground, with “middle men” - and
women - now controlling the market, targeting impoverished families. To
gather evidence on suspects and perpetrators is incredibly difficult.
Here, it’s illegal for police to use covert tactics to gather evidence
on trafficking.
Ands this is one of many harrowing tales we have heard in just one week in Cambodia.
Long Ven was arrested for setting up
fake NGO/orphanage, the Underprivileged Children School UCS, and is also
accused of trafficking children for sex
In the tourist haven of Siem Reap, we watched thirty three year-old Long
Ven - a former Cambodian monk - be arrested in the culmination of a 4
month investigation. He is accused of running a fake English Language
School in the countryside.
Online, he appealed for donations and
‘volunteers’, claiming he was caring for orphans, but all of his
students lived within the surrounding community and had parents. This
was not a residential facility, yet 60 children were in his care, and he
allowed Western paedophiles to visit them.
He let men take
children on day trips and rented a separate house in the town where he
allowed them to spend time with two boys. Investigators also found
conversations on social networking sites where he discussed trafficking
Asian girls under ten to Eastern Europe, and the ease with which he
could do it.
The intelligence gathering involved two former
Australian detectives who work for the Cambodian Children’s Fund Child
Protection Unit (CPU). They’re here to teach local police how to gather
evidence, how to work a crime scene, how to arrest and question a
suspect.
Their work meant the school could be raided this week,
and government officials came to see the operation come to fruition, and
see the children being interviewed by a special team of counsellors.
Some were as young as three. In recent days, the government made their
presence felt when otherwise it seems absent.
The Director of
Child Welfare, Oung Sophannara, told me “The reality is that it is very
difficult to control institutions in Cambodia. There are so many of them
looking after children. Some of them are registered, some are not.”
But
his job is to protect children, to make sure more institutions are
regulated and the illegitimate ones closed. His response was, “Yes, this
is our duty. We have to do it in the future. We must do it, but in
reality, we have a lack of resources.”
Long Ven allowed paedophiles to visit children at his facility
That is the crux of the problem according to James McCabe from CPU.
“Police
are extremely low paid and there is a limited budget for
investigations. Some of the basic salaries can be $60 a month, so the
motivation to do a good job is also lacking. What we’ve found is that if
you give them some support they want to do their job properly.”
And
the difficulties are even more complex than that. The parents of a
victim are reluctant to report sex crime because of a culture of
impunity in this country, and poverty prevents them from hiring a lawyer
or getting the medical care their child may need, and a lack of
education means there’s little understanding among children that they
can say no.
Child exploitation, of course, is not just a
Cambodian problem but a global one. Yet, in a country shattered by war
and genocide, that’s now developing fast, it’s having to deal with a
different crisis. A crisis that’s evolving and changing guises, but the
facts are stark - innocent children are easy currency, and prey to
adults hungry to escape poverty.
*Some names have been changed for legal reasons
Lucy Watson’s investigation into child exploitation and orphanage tourism will air on ITV News on Thursday and Friday
No comments:
Post a Comment