Nambla apologist at #19.
Posted on 01/17/2004 7:56:47 PM PST by calcowgirl
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia, whose postwar opening for tourism went as far as to include child prostitution, has begun a campaign against suspected pedophiles, increasingly deporting them for trial in their home countries.
Private child protection groups, foreign governments and police forces in Cambodia are working together on the problem. Free city guidebooks and maps now carrying ads warning in red type, "Sex with children is a crime."
"It was total impunity before in Cambodia," Rodney Hatfield, a representative for Unicef, which has started its own ad campaign. "Now it is getting harder and harder" for adults to prey on children, he said.
Courts have begun issuing harsh sentences for a crime that, five years ago, was not even allowed to be mentioned in newspapers. The drive started last January when a Cambodian judge imposed a 20-year sentence on an Australian tourist convicted of having sex with a minor.
On Thursday, a Cambodian court sentenced a Vietnamese woman to 20 years in jail for forcing girls as young as 10 to work at her brothel. Her son, convicted of being her accomplice, was given five years, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a nation where corruption is rampant, the success of the crackdown depends largely on the willingness of other nations to bring suspects to trial, sidestepping the possibility they will bribe their way out of trouble once they are back home.
In the United States, a new law allows Americans charged with sexually molesting children overseas to be tried in federal court. Since it went into effect on April 30, eight United States residents have been arrested abroad and placed in federal custody on various charges involving illegal sexual conduct with minors, two of them from Cambodia.
The first was Michael Lewis Clark, a 69-year-old Seattle resident, who was sent back to the United States on Sept. 9 for trial on charges of sexual misconduct with minors. He has been indicted on charges of engaging in sexual conduct with two Cambodian boys, ages 10 and 13.
On Nov. 15, Cambodia deported a second American, Gary Evans Jackson, another Seattle resident. He has been charged with three counts of traveling abroad and engaging in illegal sexual conduct with minors.
The fight against child prostitution became a major campaign last summer, when the minister of tourism, Veng Sereyvuth, declared, "the pedophile is Cambodia's most unwanted visitor."
Using money from a $250,000 Unicef program, the Cambodian National Police established juvenile protection units in the seven Cambodian provinces where the problem was most acute.
In addition to the police program, private groups join in the scrutiny of tourists suspected of coming to Cambodia in search of sex with minors.
"We have an observation network," said Hang Vibol, executive director of Our Home, a private group that shelters street children. He said his group was monitoring the cases of 43 foreign visitors, 10 of them Americans. Financed largely by French and Spanish donations, the group prepares cases for the police.
Mr. Vibol said information from his group led Cambodian officials last week to charge Blake Alan Respini, a 47-year-old Californian, with raping two underage boys in his hotel room.
Also in early January, Frank Kent, 47, also of California, was charged with debauchery after the police said he was taking pornographic photos of a 15-year-old girl in his hotel room. The American authorities are monitoring both cases for possible trial in the United States.
"Before, we used to inform the police 10 or 20 times before they would act," Mr. Vibol said. "But now that is changing."
"For the heck of it, I did a google search on 'blake respini'.
He's a high school cross country coach in San Francisco."
Good work!
Why am I not surprised that Respini works at a high school in San Fransicko?
Anybody who deliberately takes children into San Fransicko should be jailed for child abuse.
U. S. tries to combat sexual abuse of children internationally
By GEORGE GEDDA
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the seamier side of the rise in international tourism: the sexual abuse of children, some as young as five. Many of the predators are American. The United States and other governments worldwide are taking increased notice of the phenomenon.
A law enacted this year makes it a crime for any person to enter the United States or for any citizen to travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving children.
The first indictment under the law occurred in September in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Michael L. Clark, 69, was charged with having sexual contact with young boys in Cambodia. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
Last month, a federal grand jury in Seattle handed down an indictment against Gary Evans Jackson, 56. He was accused of having sex with three Cambodian boys, between the ages of 10 to 15.
A reporter from the Daily Telegraph of London reported in September that he was distraught when, during a visit to the Svay Pak district of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, he was offered the sexual services of three girls, ages 10, 11 and 12.
President Bush told the U.N. General Assembly in September that there is ‘‘a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable.’’
"The victims of sex trade see little of life before they see the very worst of life: an underground of brutality and lonely fear," he said.
The State Department is granting $500,000 to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, to assist the group’s efforts to combat the practice in Cambodia, Thailand and Costa Rica. Joe Mettimano, a World Vision spokesman, says the group hopes that deterrence can keep American child molesters away from the many countries where children are abducted, forced or coerced into commercial sex slavery each year.
He says World Vision is providing "pop-up" messages on Internet sites that tout child sex tourism opportunities abroad. The messages are a warning to pedophiles that they could be subject to arrest if they sexually abuse a minor. The group also has plans to display the message at airports and airlines and in destination countries through local television, billboards and road signs.
Former Rep. John R. Miller (R-Wa.), who heads the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons says, "Sex tourism is one of the major components of modern day slavery, the biggest driver of forced child prostitution."
World Vision cited statistics to show that more than 1 million children are recruited annually into commercial sex slavery. The highest concentrations of child prostitutes are found in Asia and South America, it says. The figures, it adds, have increased enormously in the recent past in Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Many sex tourists are born pedophiles but the majority are "situational offenders" driven by curiosity or other reasons, World Vision says. The group has made some inroads in Cambodia with the help of the country’s Ministry of Tourism. As an example, a number of local hotels now forbid local children from entering with foreigners.
Children make up only a part of trafficking in the international sex trade. And the State Department issues a report each year on the efforts of governments to combat the overall problem.
Countries that are not making significant efforts to combat this "modern day slavery" could be subject to U.S. sanctions.
A State Department report in June estimated that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide every year are trafficked across borders into the sex trade or into forced labor situations. Up to 20,000 are trafficked into the United States.
"It is incomprehensible," says Secretary of State Colin Powell, "that trafficking in human beings is taking place in the 21st Century – incomprehensible but true. Trafficking leaves no land untouched, including our own."
EDITOR’S NOTE: George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968.
I agree. I've just finished reading a bunch of related articles, including the doj indictment of Evans (mentioned in original article). It turns out he was convicted in 1981 in Seattle of similar crimes. In 20 years, one can only imagine how many children he has victimized to satisfy his perversion. He also took photos and videos of his activities, and was a frequent visitor of internet cafes. No doubt, this is how he finances his 'lifestyle'. These people are truly sickos.
Hmmm... they would have to start with Saudi Airlines and the Saud princess private whorehouses.
http://www.sauduction.com/12issue.html
http://www.sauduction.com/13issue.html
And don't get me going on the sex slave issue in the middle east, where they import slaves "maids" from places like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philipines and take away their passports, their rights and their dignity.... where their "employers" are able to beat them, molest them, and rape them with impunity, and where the "mistress" of the house is unable/unwilling to act as she is a meare "woman", and her only course of action to seeing her husband screw the "maid" is to take out her frustrations on the innocent slave and give her beatings to go with her husbands rape.
Saudi, a proud nation where if your maid tries to run away becasue of your treatment, you can simply accuse her of "theft" and she convinently ends of at "chop chop square" after Friday prayers...
May justice catch up with the rest of them soon...
[PUKE]
Former Rep. John R. Miller (R-Wa.), who heads the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons says, "Sex tourism is one of the major components of modern day slavery, the biggest driver of forced child prostitution."
"It is incomprehensible," says Secretary of State Colin Powell, "that trafficking in human beings is taking place in the 21st Century – incomprehensible but true. Trafficking leaves no land untouched, including our own."
It is clear that something is finally being done to crack down on these pedophiles who travel from the US to other countries because the Republicans are in charge. No way would the Democrats want to offend any of their base constituencies.
Go Republicans! They probably didn't make NAMBLA happy either! (GOOD!)
Apparently, the laws are part of "the PROTECT Act", signed into law April 2003 and includes the Amber Alert and other provisions.
This from Bush's speech when he signed the bill:
The new law will also strengthen federal penalties for child kidnapping and other crimes against the young. Judges will now have the authority to require longer supervision of sex offenders who are released from prison. And certain repeat sex offenders in our society will now face life behind bars, so they can never do harm again.
Thankfully, you are not writing laws.
San Francisco has a range of educational assets unmatched in the region. The California Maritime Museum is worth a visit. So is the Palace of the Legion of Honor. The Academy of Sciences has a pretty good Planetarium (although the Aquarium is now outshone by the one in Monterey Bay). The De Young ain't bad, and then there's the Opera and the Ballet.
The city itself is a wreck, but even that is an object lesson in what happens when a child fails to adhere to virtuous behavior.
I guess the pedophiles will move to the communist Pedophile Paradise in the Caribbean.
You should take your own advice. I didn't accuse Mr. Respini of anything. You are clealy so filled with intolerance and hate that you didn't read my post.
Please do not make me ashamed to know you are americans.
Given your behavior, I would be proud to have you be so ashamed as to leave America, forever. Might I suggest Brussels?
Nambla apologist at #19.
;-D
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.