A woman and her son walk past an anti-sexual exploitation billboard in Phnom Penh. A US official praised Cambodia Wednesday for its efforts against foreign paedophiles but urged the government to work on prosecuting more sex traffickers.(AFP/File/Suy Se)
PHNOM PENH (AFP) – A US official praised Cambodia Wednesday for its efforts against foreign paedophiles but urged the government to work on prosecuting more sex traffickers.Luis CdeBaca, director of the US state department's office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, told reporters he had asked Cambodian officials to go after those "who had provided the victims to the foreign paedophiles".
He said the US hoped to work with the Cambodian government to investigate and prosecute sex traffickers, after the two countries cooperated to fly home three American men accused of sexually abusing children in Cambodia.
"We applaud the government for the action that they have taken so far," he said during a press briefing.
"Another party to that crime remains here in Cambodia and that would be the brothel owners who were selling the children to these paedophiles," CdeBaca added.
Erik Leonardus Peeters, 41, and Ronald Gerard Boyajian, 49, both from California, were arrested along with 75-year-old Jack Louis Sporich from Arizona by Cambodian police in February.
Authorities in the US said Tuesday that the trio had been flown home and would be charged, vowing a renewed effort to stop US paedophiles from going to Cambodia.
The Southeast Asian country has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.
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