Rape victims face bribes, corruption

Associated Press


PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Rape victims seeking justice in Cambodia face serious obstacles such as police who demand bribes before making an arrest, a human rights report released today said.

The report by Amnesty International says the incidence of rape appears to be growing in Cambodia, but corruption and discrimination within the police and courts prevent rapists from being prosecuted.

The London-based group based its findings on research in 10 provinces last year and dozens of interviews with rape victims between the ages of 10 and 40, family members, government officials, rights groups, medical personnel, police and lawyers.

One of those interviewed was the father of an 19-year-old woman with a learning disability who was raped twice. The father said police asked him for 100,000 riel ($25) to arrest his daughter's attacker — an amount roughly equivalent to the monthly salary of a civil servant.

"Police only work if you have money, if you can pay," the father was quoted as saying in the report. "But we don't have that. And if you don't, the police just ignore the case."

Donna Guest, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific deputy director, said some rape victims were forced to marry their attackers as part of a deal between the families involved, who see it as a way to marry off a woman stigmatized by rape while dropping the complaint against her attacker.

"For too many survivors of rape, the pursuit of justice and medical support adds further distress to the initial abuse," Guest said.

Amnesty urged the Cambodian government to "publicly condemn sexual violence," saying much more needs to be done to dispel the stigma associated with rape.

There are no comprehensive statistics on rape and sexual violence against women and girls in the country, but officials at the National Police, the Ministry of Women's Affairs and elsewhere "believe the incidence of rape in Cambodia is increasing and that a growing number of victims are children," the report said.

Police recorded 468 cases of rape, attempted rape and sexual harassment in 2009, a 24 percent increase over the previous year, but those figures are considered low and unreliable, the report said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak confirmed that rapes cases in Cambodia appear to be increasing, but he criticized the Amnesty report as overly negative.

"Even though there is an increase in rape cases, I can assure you that all of the rapists we have arrested are in jail," he said.