Cambodia: A Place of Countless Struggles

Nothing drives emotions out the window more than hearing about innocent children being used for sex. In Cambodia, sex trafficking has grown into a troublesome issue. Sex trafficking has become one of the fastest growing crimes occurring internationally. It is the third largest crime-business in the world, after drugs and arms trafficking. Women, girls, and even men and boys are victims of the billion-dollar sex trafficking industry. Sex trafficking occurs everywhere, and it is not culturally specific, but a gender specific issue. There are numerous cases of sex trafficking within Cambodia, however child sex trafficking is extremely captivating and distressing to learn about.

The Khmer Rouge forces took over Cambodia, and evacuated the nation's cities. They emptied schools, hospitals, factories and abolished all forms of money and wages. Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self expression were forbidden. They were forced into the countryside to do forced labor, and got less than 90 grams of rice a day. Where most people died from fatigue, disease, execution, and starvation. Now people of Cambodia are exchanging this terrible genocide for healing. Trying to find peace and a resolution for all those who have lost loved ones, or encountered this terrible genocide

struggling to overcome its dark history. Even after the post war was over, excess numbers of landmines are yet to professionally remove. These landmines are still scattered in deep forests of Cambodia, serving as dangerous remnants of war and resulting in an alarmingly high number of disabled people. Due to the weak and sometimes ineffective government, several illegal activities such as children sex trade continue to operate within Cambodia's borders (Yale University, 2003).

To many Americans the Cambodian Genocide was the most unknown genocide that took place. Just like the catastrophic event known as the Rwandan Genocide, this genocide is also not known. The Khmer Rouge committed the same crimes. Some of their murderous methods were very similar. During this time the Khmer Rouge put local Cambodians in prison, hospitals, and some schools to be executed or just to stay there to slowly suffer and eventually die.

Cambodia experienced mass death, approximately 1.7 million lives, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975 through 1979. The Khmer Rouge regime dominated the Cambodian government and attempted to purge the population of intellectuals, professionals and supporters of the original government. In an attempt to better the country’s economic standing at a horrendously rapid rate, the country instead experienced mass destruction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways devastation was brought upon Cambodia and how it affected the populace. In the 1950’s the country was engulfed by the civil war north and south Vietnam was waging after gaining independence from France. The battlefield of the war overflowed into Cambodia and caused physical

Ever since the actions in Cambodia occurred, it has been debated whether it was an actual genocide. The general definition of genocide is the purposeful and methodical execution of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia demonstrated that a government can be guilty of genocide against its own nation. The radical communist party led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. After 1979, the Khmer Rouge left a traumatized Cambodian culture that continues to undergo the repercussions of the genocide. People over the age of forty in Cambodia have stories to tell of fear, cruelty, hunger and the loss of family members. However, the Cambodian government is not making an effort to recognize the negative occurrences that have posed itself in the history of their culture.

Comprehensively, one in five casualties of human trafficking are youngsters, despite the fact that in poorer areas and subregions, for example, Africa and Greater Mekong, they make up the lion's share of trafficked people. Men and young men might be casualties of human trafficking for the motivations behind constrained work, constrained asking and sexual abuse, and as kid officers. The rate of recognized male casualties is excessively lower than that of ladies for various reasons, including the way that for a long time hostile to human trafficking enactment around the globe tended to concentrate on trafficking in ladies and kids or trafficking with the end goal of sexual misuse, of which most casualties are

Cambodia is a South East Asian country formerly known as Kampuchea, it shares borders with Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. In Cambodia during 1975-1979 a political regime known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. During this time it is estimated that around 2 million people perished, over a quarter of the population, from torture and execution or from starvation and untreated illness (Fawthrop & Jarvis, 2005). Although the regime ended with defeat by the Vietnamese over 30 years ago, the effects from this reign of terror continues to have an impact on Cambodia. The countries social coexistence, peace building process and the aftermath of the annihilation of so many of its people has affected the current population make up in

Over last few decades Cambodia has faced the consequences of the Vietnam War and the Pol Plot genocide, which left the country economically despaired and nearly half of the population under twenty years old. Cambodia however attracts many visitors from across the world for its rich culture, fascinating temples and picturesque beaches. Unfortunately, Cambodia is also known for sexual tourism and in particular child sex tourism. The international community recognizes Cambodia’s trafficking epidemic, which child sex tourism falls under, and the United States ranks Cambodia as Tier Two on its Trafficking Persons Watch List. It is important to note that there is no internationally agreed upon definition of child sex tourism which in return perpetuates the problem. One may broadly define child sex tourism as the “sexual exploitation of children by a person who travels from his or her home region in order to have sexual contact with children. Child sex tourists can be domestic travellers of international tourists.”

To many in the West, human trafficking is unreal- something that happens in developing countries, something that doesn’t affect us. To others, it’s a daily hell- a life they never thought they would have, a curse put upon them from which they can’t escape. The truth is that human trafficking is a global issue. It happens in the richest and poorest places in the world. Even in the streets of Washington, D.C., the capital of America, one can find a human trafficking victim. While the whole world is affected by this tragedy, the focus will be on Thailand- where many of the human trafficking victims come to and from.

To begin with, in Cambodia, human trafficking has been a pertinent problem for the past two decades, mainly because of myths, poverty, and traditions. In the country, a tradition often surfaces about men having a great desire to have sexual intercourse with those who are pure and young because it will remove all of their sins. The myth is that when men had sexual relationships with virgins, it would grant them luck and good health. For this reason, an abundance of pedophiles used to visit Cambodia because they knew that the country condoned prostitution (Pesta). Due to the myth and the command of pedophiles for prepubescent girls, brothels are targeting those younger and younger. Children as young as four are being sent into the sex trade, and “prostitution has become a ‘fixture of urban life’ in Cambodia” (“The Face of”). Furthermore, “visiting prostitutes has become a common and accepted male pastime [in the country]” (Sidner). The abundance of people in Cambodia visiting the cities for the sole purpose of sex sullies the reputation of the country, and it puts the

The small country of Cambodia has become a transit, source, and destination for child trafficking victims. There are many children going through Cambodia from Vietnam and Thailand as a result of child trafficking (“Human Trafficking” 2). In 2006 Cambodia was one of the busiest spots in the world for child trafficking, with many of those victims being delivered into the sex trade in Thailand, Malaysia, Macao and Taiwan (“Global Crime Case: The Modern Slave Trade” 1). Child trafficking is happening all over the country but t one place notorious is Svay Pak, a run-down village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh (“Children for Sale” 4). As tourists in Svay Pak you are bombarded by many young children assuming you are there for sex. Throughout the village there are many girls as young as nine who are for sale. As stated by the reporter Bob Mosier, “You have an 8-year old or 9-year-old little girl you know just looking at you smiling, realizing that you’re going to in just a few

The enormously high poverty rate, coupled with the crackdown on pedophilia in the western world makes Cambodia particularly vulnerable and child sex trafficking has become a lucrative way to exploit the country’s natural resources. One of the young girls featured in the film, Da-Lin, tells her story - “I sold my virginity to an old man for $500, I did it to help my family, my parents were sick and my brothers and sisters are young and had to go to school, my virginity was the only thing of value we had” (2:15). Another young girl explains how she suffered a stroke due to the abuse she endured. The stories go on and on, young children sold as child sex workers by their husbands, boyfriends, friends and family members. They cannot seek help from the authorities for fear of imprisonment, and they face exile from their villages due to shame.

Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is home to 15.14 million people as of 2013 ("Cambodia World Bank Country Profile," 2013). Cambodia’s economy has been growing rapidly (at around 7% in 2013) and poverty has fallen. The country has been successful in meeting it’s millennium development goal of halving poverty in 2009 ("Cambodia World Bank Country Profile," 2013). Cambodia has also been successful in improving maternal and child health as well as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS with one of the highest antiretroviral coverage rates in the developing world ("Cambodia World Bank Country Profile," 2013). Cambodia is still developing, however, and there is still much work to be done in the realm of health and

Cambodian society is still affected by almost three decades of civil war that devastated the country physically and psychologically, and faces high levels of poverty and poor development indicators (Malena and Chhim 2009). Whereas considerable progress has been made since the Peace Agreements in 1991, Cambodia’s recent past has shaped its contemporary political, cultural, and socio-economic context. The characteristics of these dimensions have contributed to the poor governance of the Cambodian administration as well as a hierarchical system influenced by patrimonial power structures and patron-client relationships, in which corruption is commonplace (Nikkei Asian Review 2014). Furthermore, this neo-patrimonial system might persist for various reasons, including: limited notion of social accountability among civil society organizations and the reticence of citizens to challenge the Government (Johnson, Hyde and Rosenfeld 2014).