Thailand Child-Sex Ring Run By Monk Busted in Chiang Mai

[Bankei]

CHIANG MAI: -- Chiang Mai is currently suffering a surfeit of paedolphiles and others of a similar disposition, according to the city authorities, so much so that police have announced their avowed intent to stamp out the menace. A Department of Special Investigation (DSI) source recently revealed the existence of a child-sex ring organized by a wayward monk and a layman; the two subsequently having been prosecuted along with one of their British clients.

The two, Phra Vissanu Tejdhammo of Wat Pa Lan and Surasak Keawman, 51, have been arrested, charged with sexually exploiting children. The monk apparently was wont to venture out into the territory of the hill tribe villages in Chiang Mai and neighbouring provinces, without his robes. Finding suitable victims, largely young boys, the monk would entice them, perhaps using the ploys described below, and then, having beguiled the poor innocents take them back to Chiang Mai where Keawman would sexually seduce them; softening them up, so to speak, before farming them out to foreign paedophiles, who had come to Thailand for that specific purpose.

The layman, Keawman, was nabbed first, as six boys were found in his house, and evidence found on Tejdhammo’s phone showed Keawman having sex with the boys, as other evidence as well like lists of male and female teenagers, a baseball bat, an electric prod and condoms. Keawman then informed on his colleague, Tejdhammo, who was subsequently arrested. The two offenders were charged by the DSI with six counts each of child molestation and six counts of depriving a child of parental care. One of their foreign clients, an unnamed 67-year-old British national, was also arrested, charged with the same offences.

SE Asia is a favourite happy hunting ground for sex tourists, in general, and paedophiles in particular. The ideal conditions of abject poverty, statelessness (as in the case of refugees and hill tribe people), lax or ill-defined laws, corrupt police, bribery and corruption among the authorities, abandoned children, low education and a lack of specific training in law-enforcement all make for exceptional opportunities for such individuals, leaving young victims irreparably damaged and the perpetrators rarely reported or prosecuted, or frequently if they are, miraculously reappearing on the streets after supposedly having been imprisoned, as has been the case in several instances in Pattaya.

Indeed, extreme vulnerability is a decided turn on for these individuals, apparently. In one well recorded incident, 20 convicted Australian paedophiles attempted to travel to Indonesia and Thailand immediately after the Boxing Day tsunami, evidently to prey on vulnerable, displaced children. Quick thinking by the Australian authorities prevented their entry into either of these countries because their names were red-flagged, being child sex-offenders, and notice of their presumed intent transmitted to the Thai and Indonesian authorities who barred their entry.

Paedophiles are not normally so easily identifiable, however. They can be of any nationality and any age, particularly since the introduction of Viagra, as the recent conviction of a 78-year old male paedophile from Pattaya showed, as he was caught in flagrante delicto with large supply of the medication.

Although all socio-economic groups contain paedophiles, as do all occupations, certain ones are favourites, such as school and foundation volunteers, teachers, clerics, policemen and missionaries, again another prime example being from Pattaya. These positions put them in the ideal situation because they firstly, gain the trust of their victims and secondly, rely on their personas as authority figures, making resistance difficult, particularly in societies where respect for authority is highly regarded.

They may be single or married, couples having been known to indulge in the same victim. However, they rarely have an extensive peer group, other than those of the same ilk, frequently sharing victims. An overriding characteristic, which seems to hold true in many cases, however, is that they are inordinate collectors, who never throw anything away.

They will frequent the obvious procurement areas, such as Sunni Plaza in Pattaya, or the poorer areas where street children congregate. The bait that they use for enticement includes offering money, (to either the child or its parents), buying presents and providing shelter and food, appeals for assistance, and enticements such as, ‘come inside, I have something special to show you’.

The penalty for sex crimes of this nature range from rehabilitation, various terms of imprisonment to chemical castration and in extreme cases, the death penalty as is current in certain US states, e.g. South Carolina, where the death penalty is mandatory for the second offense of raping a child under age 11, or in Oklahoma, with a death penalty provision for raping a child under age 14.

Reporter: Krispin St. Pierre (National News Reporter)
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010 ... hiang-mai/

[tiltbillings]

The sex trade in Thailand is a very ugly blight upon Thai society.

[christopher:::]

With so many Westerners involved, it's a blight on all our societies.

[bodom]

With so many Westerners involved, it's a blight on all our societies.

The lust, hate and ignorance that motivate these acts are a blight upon the whole of society. This is not a thai or western issue. This is a universal problem.

[mikenz66]

With so many Westerners involved, it's a blight on all our societies.

As far as I can tell, the Westerners are only a small part of the problem. As I'm sure I've said on old threads on E-Sangha, it's reasonably clear, if you keep your eyes open, that there is a huge sex trade all over Asia catering to locals that dwarfs the high-profile western-oriented areas. Presumably the local governments would like to obscure that...

[Not this this excuses paedophiles of any nationality...]

Metta
Mike

[christopher:::]

Hi Mike,

I didn't mean to "blame" Westerners, but neither should we negate the historical or cultural influences, modern attitudes about sexuality, pornography and such. These are all related factors. Sharing (and acknowledging) responsibility in a situation like this could be helpful, imo.

The Asian sex trade did not emerge out of thin air. Japanese and American soldiers away from home played a part during WW2, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Locals have always played a part, of course, and as you say they are now the primary supporters...

Prostitution in Thailand and Southeast Asia or How to keep millions of good women down
Justin Hall, 1994 paper

The twentieth century has seen the rise of the world marketplace. In this new world market, Thailand and the Philippines have recently stepped in to play the role of whorehouse to the world. This is facilitated by developing agents having disregarded the development of women's opportunities for economic independence, leaving prostitution as the highest paying job available to many of the women of Southeast Asia.While these countries have benefited from the tourist presence and the resulting foreign exchange, the women who actually put themselves out for their countries development process are to a large extent victims of threefold oppression on the basis of gender, class and the particular role of their homeland in the games of international political economy.

International Political Economics

"Ja, I like Bangkok very much. It's the last place in the world where you can still be a white man." -
a German Bar Owner

The idea of creating designated areas for sex tourism in Asia dates back at least as far as pre-Communist China, where "brothel trains, given the euphemism of 'comfort waggons' were a long accepted part of social life... . Once lusty Europeans could book a ticket to erotic pleasure on some of the specially chartered trains out of Shanghai." But it was to be the Japanese who set up the most comprehensive network of "comfort waggons" staffed by forced prostitutes, or "comfort women." Many women "lived as captives of the military beginning in 1932, when Japan invaded China, to the end of the war in 1945." Forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers, the women were drawn from the Asian countries conquered by Japan, and included "Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, as well as Dutch women captured in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony."

While the Japanese had fostered prostitution on a limited scale to serve their own needs, "the boom in Southeast Asia started with the U.S. presence in Vietnam. There were 20,000 prostitutes in Thailand in 1957; by 1964, after the United States established seven bases in the country, that number had skyrocketed to 400,000." It was this boom, and the resulting slack after the war that was taken up by tourism, that introduced prostitution as a large-scale business to the region.

This whole process was overseen by the governments of both countries. In 1967, Thailand agreed to provide "rest and recreation" services to American servicemen during the Vietnam War, which the soldiers themselves called, "I&I, ... intercourse and intoxication." How did the governments of these countries respond to becoming, in the words of Senator J. William Fulbright, "an American brothel"? One South Vietnamese government official responded, "The Americans need girls; we need dollars. Why should we refrain from the exchange? It's an inexhaustible source of U.S. dollars for the State." In fact, the Vietnam war was responsible for "[injecting] some $16 million into the Thai economy annually, money that tourism would have to replace after the war was over."

Whereas traditionally, the military forces of foreign powers have utilized women of Southeast Asia as prostitutes, or "comfort women," now the soldiers of the countries themselves have taken over. In a survey of Thai students, soldiers, store clerks and labourers, "[a]mong the respondents who have ever patronized prostitutes, the soldiers are the most likely to have visited a prostitute recently: 81% respond that they have visited a prostitute within the past six months." In addition, "[t]he median number of visits during the past six months ranges from two for the students to five for the soldiers..." A survey of military conscripts from the north of Thailand yielded that "73% of them lost their virginity with a prostitute and 97% regularly visit prostitutes."

See also:

BBC: Asia's sex trade is 'slavery'
Human smuggling eclipses the drug trade
Sex, eroticism and the allure of the East
Asian Sex Trafficking Called Largest Slave Trade in History

[Ben]

Hi Christopher

No matter how intertwined the participation of Asians and Westerners in the Asian child sex trade, it doesn't excuse current behaviour or responsibilities.
kind regards

Ben

[christopher:::]

Hi Ben,

Indeed, acknowledging contributing historical and cultural factors in no way alters our responsibilities or excuses the choices individuals make, in regards to their behavior. It just helps us to understand how certain webs of samsara have come into being. Which can be useful, if one finds themselves in a position to somehow assist in a web's unraveling...

[Paññāsikhara]

May the victims of these horrible crimes find peace through the protection of those who truly care for them.
May the perpetrators of these horrible crimes realize the pain they inflict, and change their ways for good.

May the Dharma provide both that protection and also the insight into cause and effect to achieve both these aims.

[mikenz66]

Hi Christopher,

Locals have always played a part, of course, and as you say they are now the primary supporters...

From what I've read (which isn't a lot, so I may be wrong) my impression is that that the trade catering to foreigners has always been a minor (but rather visible) part.

Perhaps someone has some actual statistics, rather than speculations about how those naughty westerners are the ones who invented it...

Mike

[Ben]

Hi Ben,

Indeed, acknowledging contributing historical and cultural factors in no way alters our responsibilities or excuses the choices individuals make, in regards to their behavior. It just helps us to understand how certain webs of samsara have come into being. Which can be useful, if one finds themselves in a position to somehow assist in a web's unraveling...

No problem Christopher.
metta

Ben

[christopher:::]

Thanks Ben.

What goes on now in Thailand is similar to what is happening in other nations.

I've read a number of sources who point to the presence and practices of the Japanese and American militaries as causal agents in the rise of the present industry in Asia but the global sex trade, like the drug trade and human trafficking is not something invented, maintained or profited by any one culture or group of people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking

It has grown and changed over time and continues to cause great suffering, that's probably the most important fact people should be aware of. Poverty, lack of compassion and greed being some of the most common contributing factors...

May the victims of these horrible crimes find peace through the protection of those who truly care for them.
May the perpetrators of these horrible crimes realize the pain they inflict, and change their ways for good.

May the Dharma provide both that protection and also the insight into cause and effect to achieve both these aims.

Thank you Venerable. This is most essential.