Cambodia: Christian Child Sex Rescue Shut Down
August 01, 2017
A Christian rescue charity for child sex victims has been ordered to shut down by Cambodia’s leader Hun Sen. The move came as consequence after the charity group was featured in a recent CNN report which the premier described as an “insult”. The news comes days after Agape International Missions was honored to receive a letter from Mr. Sea Kosal, the Under Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Cambodia, recognizing their partnership on a recent raid against sex trafficking.
France24.com reports that a CNN report broadcast on July 25th featured three girls who were reportedly rescued from the sex trade by Agape International Missions (AIM), a charity founded by an American pastor which has been operating in the country since 1988. To learn more about the ministry click below:
The girls had first appeared in a 2013 documentary by CNN on Svay Pak, a poor suburb on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, before the network decided to pay them another visit this year and follow up on their fate. According to France24.com’s report, the head of the charity, American pastor Don Brewster, was quoted in last week’s report as saying that Svay Pak was “at one point the epicenter” of the child sex trade. He said things had dramatically improved in recent years but that some trade in minors still occurred behind closed doors. But Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest serving leaders, took exception to the report.
“I cannot accept the insult by an NGO that was broadcasted on CNN… that said in Cambodia mothers sold daughters to be prostitutes,” he told a graduation ceremony.
“This is an insult that cannot be tolerated. At any cost, this organization must leave Cambodia. We cannot let them stay anymore,” he added.
According to the report from France24.com, Hun Sen and nationalists seized on an early version of CNN’s online report which described the girls as Cambodian, when in fact they either spoke Vietnamese or Khmer with a thick Vietnamese accent. CNN later removed the word Cambodian from their headline.
France24.com report / TRUNEWS summary.
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