By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer
AP - Friday, June 6
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A Cambodian Cabinet minister said Thursday he would take legal action against law enforcement personnel if there was evidence that they misused their authority to abuse local sex workers.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng made the remark a day after about 200 Cambodian sex workers claimed their colleagues had been physically and sexually abused in custody. The female and male sex workers made the allegations during a peaceful protest Wednesday against a recent crackdown on prostitution.
Police began rounding up workers from brothels, bars and parks in March, detaining them for a week to 10 days at a rehabilitation center for sex workers on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Cambodian law does not explicitly define prostitution as illegal, but authorities frown upon commercial sex and routinely launch such sweeps.
During the recent protest, sex workers said that many of their colleagues had been unlawfully detained and that some guards at the rehabilitation center had abused them.
In the recent protest, 32-year-old prostitute Chan Dina, a member of the sex workers' advocacy group Cambodian Prostitutes Union, said some of her colleagues "were beaten and gang-raped by the center guards." She said they did not use condoms.
Sar Kheng said the government "will take legal action against any official alleged to have abused sex workers."
"We have asked for evidence about any official or group involved in abuse or mistreatment of sex workers, but so far we have not received anything concrete about that yet," he said.
He was speaking at a news conference about the release of the Cambodia chapter of U.S. State Department's 2008 Trafficking in Persons report.
The report gave Cambodia an improved ranking of "Tier 2," up from levels it had held for the previous four years, when it had been described as "a source and destination country for trafficked persons" due to the government's allegedly inadequate efforts.
Sar Kheng said Cambodia would not allow its rating to slip down again.
Associated Press Writer
AP - Friday, June 6
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A Cambodian Cabinet minister said Thursday he would take legal action against law enforcement personnel if there was evidence that they misused their authority to abuse local sex workers.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng made the remark a day after about 200 Cambodian sex workers claimed their colleagues had been physically and sexually abused in custody. The female and male sex workers made the allegations during a peaceful protest Wednesday against a recent crackdown on prostitution.
Police began rounding up workers from brothels, bars and parks in March, detaining them for a week to 10 days at a rehabilitation center for sex workers on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Cambodian law does not explicitly define prostitution as illegal, but authorities frown upon commercial sex and routinely launch such sweeps.
During the recent protest, sex workers said that many of their colleagues had been unlawfully detained and that some guards at the rehabilitation center had abused them.
In the recent protest, 32-year-old prostitute Chan Dina, a member of the sex workers' advocacy group Cambodian Prostitutes Union, said some of her colleagues "were beaten and gang-raped by the center guards." She said they did not use condoms.
Sar Kheng said the government "will take legal action against any official alleged to have abused sex workers."
"We have asked for evidence about any official or group involved in abuse or mistreatment of sex workers, but so far we have not received anything concrete about that yet," he said.
He was speaking at a news conference about the release of the Cambodia chapter of U.S. State Department's 2008 Trafficking in Persons report.
The report gave Cambodia an improved ranking of "Tier 2," up from levels it had held for the previous four years, when it had been described as "a source and destination country for trafficked persons" due to the government's allegedly inadequate efforts.
Sar Kheng said Cambodia would not allow its rating to slip down again.
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