Young Cambodian girls and boys are the victims of the child sex trade which is primarily patronized by Khmer men - gprovideo.com photo

Cambodian parliament member Mu Sochua is determined to fight child sex trafficking in Cambodia - http://musochua.org/ photo

Lucy Lui narrates the film Red Light depicting the child sex trafficking trade in Cambodia - Lovinger photo RED LIGHT - CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING

Video Beat EXTRA Part 2 - RED LIGHT (in Cambodia)

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

KHMER MEN account for 90% of the customers in the Child Sex Trade - Children are being raped, mutilated, hooked on drugs and becoming mentally damaged for life and very few people care while the donor money is being wasted - Recommended TV Listings

Friday February 11, 2011

USED & ABUSED

Part one of this review was sick enough but the sad truth is there is more. Contrary to popular belief, the child sex trade is not dominated by foreigners but patronized by the Khmer themselves. Only 10% of the pedophiles in Cambodia are foreigners according to the film Cambodia's Virginity Trade. That is another story and film worth watching and having in ones library for those interested having a better understanding of the lack of human rights and protection in Cambodia and the region. We will review that film at another time.

In the Red Light film there were scenes involving foreigner pedophiles being arrested and being released. In one case a PEDO was arrested with the boys and photos were taken as evidence. The scene with the PEDO and the boys are in the Red Light film. True to the business as usual corruption in Sihanoukville (aka Preah Sihanouk) the PEDO was (mysteriously) released.

Another revolting story depicted in the documentary is that of an 8-year-old girl who was forced to sleep and have sex with a Khmer man. In the mourning he didn't have the money to pay for her services (as they refer to it) and he accused the girl of stealing his cash. The result was the little girl had a portion of her finger cut off and she remained imprisoned in the Khmer brothel.

Khmer men seek virgins as do other Asian cultures. The Khmer mentality ranges from that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS or it will boost the man's (used loosely) sexual potency.

Red Light also tells the story of a mother who sold her 13-year-old daughter's virginity for $800. She used the money to gamble and buy drugs to fight her own HIV.

The film features Somaly Mam a former child sex slave who has turned a savior of girls trapped in the business by rescuing them and giving them shelter and skills training. She has rescued over 4000 victims. She pointed out that when the girls don't behave they are fed fish paste with maggots. If the children refuse to have sex with customers they can be killed or put in jail. Girls are electrocuted and beaten with a belt. She noted that one girl had her hymen repeatedly sewed up and she was sold five times as a virgin.

Mam also was the victim of the brutality as a payback for saving the child sex trade victims and bringing their plight to the public's attention. As noted in Red Light her 14-year-old daughter was raped. What wasn't noted but published in the news was her daughter was intentionally infected with HIV via the rape.

Cambodian parliament member Mu Sochua is determined to fight child sex trafficking in Cambodia. She attended the screening of the film and spoke to those in attendance. She noted that the girls must have sex with 10 to 20 customers a day and within two weeks the brothel owner can recoup his purchase price for the girl with the remainder of the moneys earned during her enslavement is pure profit.

Being in the minority opposition party Mu Sochua virtually stands alone on the government level in her fight to stamp out child trafficking but as she says, "As a politician, as a leader you have to feel accountable to it."

She noted that Cambodia received $1 billion from donor money (actually $1.1 billion) and questioned what is being done with it as to helping relieve the child sex trafficking problem.

"What is being done about it," she asked. When was the last time you saw a statement from UNICEF about this?"

She noted that a lot of the images in the film were taken from the housing project opposite from where the movie was being screened.

"It's about beer, the biggest cars," she noted regarding the priorities of those who could care less about the issue. "The lack of law really doesn't help," she added.

She continued, "Police don't want to reach out and help. Big fish won't be caught because of CORRUPTION."

Mu Sochua's web site is: http://musochua.org

NOTE:

We've been covering this topic for years and have yet to see but two NGO's addressing the root cause of the problem.... POVERTY. Their priority is write reports as to the numbers being trafficked in order to raise more donor money and funding to support their colonialist life style. It's a joke.

When we did the story on this subject in 2004 with IOM then country manager John McGoeghan he said that the reporting help line they published to report pedophiles wasn't being answered by the police. It took over a year for them to answer the calls.

Children are being raped, mutilated, hooked on drugs and becoming mentally damaged for life and very few people care while the donor money is being wasted.

The root cause is not being addressed. The money should be used for creating jobs and skills AND NOT for writing copious notes, reports, paying salaries for expensive TV and newspaper ads, administration, office and expensive housing rent, cars, alcohol and NGO employee's children's expensive private school fees ($12,000 and up per child per year).

These Khmer children are not only being abused by mentally challenged Khmer men, foreign pedophiles and sexual deviates but also the NGO's who profiteer and exist from the suffering and exploitation of these children.

PREVIOUS - Part 1

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