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Rape of innocence from within and without
By Chris Kamalendran
Is Sri Lanka being used as a transit point to smuggle children to other countries? This question arose after seven Chinese orphans were detected at the Katunanayke airport while they were on their way to a western destination via Austria. They were being accompanied by suspected traffickers who may have been taking them for child labour, organ transplant or even child sex.

Three of the traffickers are in remand while the children have been sent back to China. Sri Lanka is fast becoming notorious for crimes against children drawing local as well as international attention.

Recently, in Negambo, more than 65 school children from two different mixed schools had allegedly been sexually abused by three teachers. In another case a Swiss national who had been living in Hikkaduwa for more than 25 years had reportedly abused his landlord's son. This case of abuse came to light after another Swiss national who had followed up the case had later complained to the police in his home country.

The issue of combating crimes against children, especially sexual abuse, was the focus of the 22nd meeting of the Interpol Specialist Group on Crime against Children held in Colombo this week.

This three-day session chaired by Hamish McCulloch, Assistant Director, of the Interpol Specialist Group on Crime against Children was attended by law enforcement officers and experts on the subject from 37 countries.

Some of the problems that were tackled were ways of fighting child pornography, detecting sex offenders, child prostitution and sex tourism. Despite the many detections and raids being carried out by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and the Women’s and Children's Bureau of Police there does not seem to be a reduction in the number of complaints connected to sexual abuse against children.

The Police recorded 1643 cases of child abuse last year as against 1474 in 2002 and 1392 in 2001. One of the alarming features regarding the 1643 cases reported last year was that 734 of them were related to rape.

Another significant feature that was highlighted at the conference was that while in most of these cases foreigners were involved in abusing Lankan children, the number of cases where Sri Lankans had sexually abused local children was also on the increase.

Although in recent months authorities here have busted cases especially involving foreigners they say many of the culprits have found ways of avoiding detection. One of the issues that were taken up at the conference were ways of exchanging information about the offenders and publicising their details in the respective countries. It was pointed out that many western embassies were not co-operative in this area.

In one instance an embassy representing a western country in Colombo had written to a southern police station defending one of its nationals who had been arrested in connection with abusing a child, claiming that there was no evidence to prosecute one of their nationals. A copy of the letter had also been sent to the magistrate in the area.

This case was later taken up by the Foreign Ministry as the embassy had no right to communicate directly to the local police station or influence the judiciary.

Sri Lankan children continue to be advertised on Internet sites and NCPA officials have been able to track down many paedophiles who come here in the guise of tourists. US, German, British and Swiss nationals are among those who have been detected.

One of detections was that of 66-year-old British Pianist, Brian Parnell, who had posted a graphic advertisement in 2002 while on a tour in South Asia. He fell into the hands of the NCPA through a decoy who corresponded with him.

During a tour to Sri Lanka he had performed at a leading hotel and the NCPA had used a decoy to interview him and obtain information about his activities. On a subsequent visit to Sri Lanka, Mr. Parnell had been tracked down by NCPA officials who had demanded that he leave the country, as the laws here were insufficient to prosecute him. British authorities were alerted and the suspect was sentenced to two years recently.

As many as 30 foreign paedophiles have been arrested over the past two years and some of them have been prosecuted, while action against others are pending. PEACE, another group actively involved in protecting the rights of children and who participated as observers at the conference told The Sunday Times, that they believed more police presence in areas like Mt.Lavinia could help curb the growing menace.

Director of Children and Women's Bureau, SSP Sathis Jayasundara acknowledged that law enforcement authorities should be more alert to the activities in tourist resorts.

This unit, that comes under the immediate supervision of the DIG Crimes, Jayantha Wickremaratne, has obtained UNICEF assistance to train police officers on how to handle cases of crime against children.

According to SSP Jayasundara, nearly 20 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls are sexually abused in their own homes and schools by relatives, teachers or someone known to them. He said many children employed as domestics are also sexually abused.

In addition to the beaches in the southern and western coasts, slums in Colombo city and rural areas including tea plantations have been identified as areas where sexual exploitation of children take place. SSP Jayasundara warned that inter provincial trafficking was a growing problem and it had got little attention so far.

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