SE Asian govts told to fight against child sex tourism

SE Asian govts told to fight against child sex tourism

Agencies, Phnom Penh

Southeast Asian governments should make concerted efforts in
cracking down on child sex tourism, which is on the rise across
the region, activists and officials told a conference on Friday.

"Child sex tourism is like a balloon. If you put pressure on
one country, offenders will go to another where the laws are lax
and they think they won't get caught," said Christine Beddoe,
program manager of Child Wise, an Australian-based nonprofit
group working to protect children from sexual exploitation.

"What we need to do is to put pressure together in all
countries at the same time" so there is no room for offenders to
escape, she said.

Her message came at the opening of a two-day regional meeting
in Cambodia on the prevention of child abuse in tourism
destinations.

Cambodian authorities were warned on Friday that the country's
booming tourism industry could attract more unwanted paedophiles.

Cambodian representative of the World Vision relief agency,
Laurence Gray, said up to one million people were expected to
visit Cambodia in 2003 and the number of visiting paedophiles
could rise accordingly.

"There is an idea that Cambodia is an easy place where
children are accessible, they are cheap and if you're caught and
go to court, you can pay your way out," he told AFP at the
conference.

Tourism is one of Cambodia's few thriving industries and is a
lucrative source for desperately needed foreign cash. About
600,000 tourists visited here in 2001 compared with just 280,000
in 1998.

Since 1998, when nearly three decades of civil war finally
ended, Cambodia has also earned a reputation as a haven for
paedophiles.

Gray said this perception had to be changed through efforts by
the government which must continue its clampdown on child sex
offenders.

Only two foreigners have to date been found guilty of
paedophilia here: in 2000 a British man was jailed for three
years and in July this year an Italian was jailed for 10 years in
the stiffest sentence handed down so far.

"It is clear that tourists have both a positive and negative
impact," said Thong Khon, secretary of state for the tourism
ministry. "Some of them come to have sex with children."

"It is the world's concern, not just Cambodia, everybody is
concerned over this problem," he said. "All these disgusting
activities are taking place in both developed and developing
countries."

A World Vision and Cambodian government survey of children
exposed to paedophilia released in December estimated that
Western paedophiles accounted for about 38 percent of all child
sex offenders operating here.

Tourism is a major source of income for members of ASEAN,
which groups Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

But in Cambodia, the increase of child sex is encouraged by
poverty, loose law enforcement and rampant corruption.

Delegates from Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines
and Vietnam are attending the meeting, the first of three
meetings Child Wise is planning to hold with other ASEAN
countries during the following years, said Beddoe.

She said the meeting aims to achieve a "regional action plan"
for combating child sex abuse in tourism destinations in ASEAN.

She said the action plan is designed to deliver a message to
offenders that "going to a tourist destination doesn't mean that
you'll get away with abusing children."