via Khmer NZ
Posted : Thu, 15 Jul 2010
By : Robert Carmichael
Phnom Penh - Throwing acid is a cruelly effective way of dealing with rivals in love and even business in Cambodia. To date, it is a crime that has often gone unpunished.
That is set to change with the expected passage this year of a law to tackle the issue. But no matter how soon it arrives, it would come too late for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people.
Among them is 34-year-old Sarun, a former security guard at a Phnom Penh hotel who this year was doused with acid, leaving terrible scars on his face, neck and right arm.
Since then, he has been living at the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, the country's only facility for acid victims, where along with a dozen other patients, he gets free medical treatment.
Ziad Samman, the charity's coordinator, said acid is widely used in Cambodia on rubber plantations as well as in small industries and even at home.
Acid is also cheap and easily available. And anecdotal evidence showed that many people do not regard throwing acid as a crime.
"And that's why changing perceptions is also very important, and that will take time," Samman said.
Sieng Lapresse is an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior and is the person tasked with drafting the law to combat acid attacks.
Leafing through an Acid Survivors Charity report containing graphic images of injuries to men, women and even children, his disgust at the crime was clear.
"We cannot allow this kind of weapon to go around and keep destroying the lives of our people and especially society itself," he said.
Sieng Lapresse explained the law's wide remit, a key aspect of which is ensuring that those who sell acid are licensed and sell responsibly. Another is legislating stiff penalties for those who use acid to settle disputes.
"We are looking for at least 10 years - maybe [using] a couple of drops and it scratches a little bit - to life in prison," Sieng Lapresse said.
He said he believes the punishments in the legislation ought to have a deterrent effect and said the government is insistent that people stop throwing acid.
"[We are] dead serious," he said. "This cannot go on. We will not allow this horrible weapon to kill our society and our own people."
It is a sentiment clearly shared by those at the charity's compound outside Phnom Penh. Speaking on the veranda, his face and right arm terribly scarred, Sarun said the law could not come soon enough.
"The new law is very significant for Cambodian society because it targets those people who want to throw acid," said Sarun, who did not want his full name used and was reluctant to discuss the motive behind his attack.
"I really want the government to enforce this law strongly against people who throw acid because it causes so much suffering," he said.
The suffering of individual survivors like Sarun is immense, butthe true number of victims is unknown. The charity has recorded 16 victims of acid attacks this year but said it believes the true figure is far higher.
Ziad Samman said Sarun's case highlights a common misconception that most acid attack victims are women. In fact, around half of the 260 survivors the charity has dealt with over the years are men.
Another misconception is that acid attacks are the result of jealousies and affairs.
Samman said half are the result of disputes and a further quarter are simply accidents. Proper labelling of acid containers could easily cut the number of injured.
One aspect the law is unlikely to change is impunity enjoyed by the powerful. But it should raise awareness that throwing acid is an unacceptable way to deal with disputes even if it will have come too late for the men, women and children at the charity, or CASC.
Asked what his future holds, Sarun said it was too early to say. Right now, he needs more operations on top of the three he has already had.
"But if I get well, I would like CASC to find me a job," he said. "Until that happens, I don't think about it. I have to wait until I get better."
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