Cambodian police close dozens of child-sex brothels

Police in Cambodia have swooped on a shanty town notorious as a haunt of paedophiles and child sex tourists, closing dozens of brothels and ordering a halt to the trade.

Svay Pak, on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, was virtually deserted yesterday after police arrived on Wednesday night. The village, which is known to provide child prostitutes as young as six, is usually crowded with Western tourists at night.

Earlier this week, The Independent highlighted the brazen way in which the child sex industry was operating in Svay Pak, with girls of 11 or 12 offering their services on the streets and younger children available inside the brothels. Prostitution is supposed to be illegal in Cambodia.

But Western aid workers are not convinced the crackdown is permanent. Police have taken similar action on previous occasions, but the brothels have always reopened after a few weeks. No one was arrested on Wednesday, although there were dozens of pimps and customers in the brothels.

Some observers believe the move was prompted by the fact that a regional tourism conference was scheduled to open in Phnom Penh yesterday. Police took steps to clean up Svay Pak and other red-light districts before a high-profile Asean (Association of South-east Asian Nations) meeting in October last year.

Several hundred girls, most of them trafficked from neighbouring Vietnam, worked in Svay Pak. Some are now being looked after by the Ministry of Social Welfare, while others have been taken in by Afesip, a French agency that rescues and rehabilitates child prostitutes.

But the majority have been sent on to brothels in other tourist centres, including Siem Reap, the service town for the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex, and Sihanoukville, a popular beach resort in the south of the country. The police action had been widely advertised in advance.

Cambodia has become a haven for child sex tourists since its decades of civil conflict ended in 1998. Grinding poverty has ensured a steady supply of young girls, and foreigners could – if necessary – buy their way out of trouble by bribing corrupt police officers and judges.

The 1970s pop star and convicted child pornographer Gary Glitter was deported from Phnom Penh last month after spending much of the past year in the country.

General Soun Chheangly, the Cambodian police chief, said the decision to close down Svay Pak was taken to salvage the country's reputation. "Svay Pak is extremely famous for its bad name," he said. "So the government does not allow the brothels to operate anymore, because it affects our culture badly."

Lee Lay, the police chief for the municipal district that covers the village of Svay Pak, said the closures were permanent this time. "We have been instructed by higher authorities to stop this place from expanding like a market," he said. "It is no longer a nest of prostitution."

He said that about 50 tourists a day had been visiting Svay Pak, where they could buy sex for as little as $3 (£2). The village, seven miles north of Phnom Penh, has been popular with foreigners since a UN peace-keeping force arrived to provide security for elections in 1993.

Mu Sochua, Cambodia's women's affairs minister, said the Asean conference had been one reason for the crackdown, but added that women's rights groups had been lobbying for years for the district to be shut down.

Ms Sochua has repeatedly condemned the child sex trade, but has been a lone voice in the government of Hun Sen, the Prime Minister. The industry is widely believed to operate with the connivance of senior police and military officers, who are paid protection money by pimps and own many of the brothels.

Pierre Legros, the director of Afesip, said: "There are still young girls and boys wandering around Svay Pak, ready to have sex with foreigners, but activity has decreased by 90 per cent." He said he doubted, however, that the closures were permanent. "I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes," he said. "In Cambodia, nothing is forever. Everything is back to normal after a while."

M. Legros said a national strategy was needed to combat child prostitution. "Otherwise you close down one place and the trade just moves to another."