Dear
Dr Kek Pung
President
LICADHO
14th
Nov 2014
Dear
Dr Pung
The
British Government has abandoned David Fletcher to his fate at the hands of the
Cambodian judicial system - despite knowing that Yang Dany remained a virgin,
her hymen intact, after having
allegedly been ‘brutally raped’ by him in March 2009.
In
the lead-up Mr Fletcher’s appearance in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on 20th
Nov. I am now interested to discover if there is are any human rights organizations
in Cambodia, including LICADHO, that believe David Fletcher is entitled to a
fair trial?
I
am interested to find out also if any human rights organization is prepared to
ask Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) questions
relating to the role APLE has played, and continues to play, in the prosecution
(the persecution!?) of David Fletcher for a crime that is only conceivable if
the proposition is accepted that a woman’s hymen can grow back?
APLE,
Scott Neeson, CEOPS and the British Embassies of Cambodian and Thailand have
known, since September 2010, that Yang Dany remained a virgin after the alleged
rapes but not one has spoken up in defense of David Fletcher’s right to a fair
trial. Indeed, in Nov 2014, despite APLE’s knowledge that Yang Dany was not
raped by David Fletcher in 2009, the NGO continues, to this day, to tell Yang
Dany that if she persists with her insistence she was raped that she will
receive $5000 in compensation.
Whilst
APLE may be able to buy the result it wishes in court, David Fletcher does not
have $5,000 so even if the verdict for the 20th Nov ‘trial’ has been
determined already, Yang Dany is never going to get the $5,000 promised to her
by APLE. She is merely a pawn in the APLE game – which is to provide a constant
stream of convictions, regardless of evidence, in order to maintain a constant
stream of income into the NGO’s bank account. Men like David Fletcher are
merely collateral damage in the APLE’s war of pedophiles.
This
is not the first time APLE has used questionable evidence to secure a
conviction and it will not be the last unless or until some pressure is brought
to bear on this rogue NGO to behave in a legal and professional manner.
As
LICADHO has been aware for well over a month now, I have filmed two interviews
with Yang Dany and her mother Keang Sokun in which both admitted that no rapes
took place in 2009 or at any other time. The second interview was witnessed by
two journalists who also had an opportunity to ask their own questions and take
notes. In addition to stating that no
rapes took place Yang Dany and her mother reveal who it was that suggested to
them that they ask for $30,000 compensation from David Fletcher when Keang
Sokun (not 18 year old Yang Dany!) decided to lay charges.
I
wonder if LICADHO is interested in viewing the interviews I have done with Yang
Dany and her mother Kheang Sokun? If so, I will arrange for them to be
couriered from Australia to your office over the weekend. They make for
interesting viewing and raise many questions about the role APLE has played,
and continues to play, in denying Mr Fletcher the right to a fair trial.
As
I am in Australia now it is difficult for me to obtain reliable intelligence as
to what is going on behind the scenes in Stung Meanchey, where Yang Dany and
her mother live. However it does seem that APLE, fearful that Yang Dany might tell the truth in court (“I was not raped”) on
20th Nov., has provided her
with a financial incentive not to attend court that day.
I
hope that one of the journalists to whom I am copying this letter will ask Ana G. Pinheiro and Thierry
Darnaudet
if APLE’s client, Yang Dany, will be appearing in court on 20th Nov
to be cross-examined by David Fletcher? Or by his lawyer? If, that is, he has
one!
Six
days before his case is to be heard, David Fletcher has no lawyer. On 27th
Oct the Phnom Penh Municipal Court promised to assign Mr Fletcher a lawyer as
he has no money to pay for one. It is rumoured that a court lawyer has been
assigned but Mr Fletcher has not been told his name. And, if the rumour is
true, Mr Fletcher will not get to meet his lawyer until the morning of the
trial. What this means, in reality, is that Mr Fletcher will have no
opportunity to prepare his defense or call witnesses. The ‘re-trial’, in
reality the first quasi-legal trial in the past four and a half years, will not
be in accordance with the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure.
From
a procedural point of view none of this will come as a surprise to LICADHO. The
judicial system in Cambodia is, as you know all too well, corrupt. Every day
Cambodian citizens experience the same problems that confront Mr Fletcher now –
facts, evidence and the truth being irrelevant in the court’s decision to find
the accused guilty or not guilty. Verdicts are arrived at on the basis of
either political pressure or on which party to a case (defense or prosecution) can
afford to pay the most to the judges to secure the verdict they want.
If
the Phnom Penh Municipal Court room is empty on 20th Nov. the judges
may well be tempted to accept the proposition that a woman’s hymen can go back –
secure in the knowledge that there will be no witnesses and, despite her
confession, that Yang Dany was raped by David Fletcher. Alternatively, if there
are journalists and representatives of human rights organizations present in
court the judges may feel less inclined to accept the proposition, in in front
of witnesses, that a woman’s hymen can grown back.
Unless
APLE’s lawyers can present cogent evidence of rape of which I am unaware,
evidence that renders Yang Dany’s intact hymen post-rape irrelevant, Mr Fletcher
should walk from court on 20th Nov a free man. If, that is, APLE
does not have some other trick up its sleeve – like guaranteeing that Yang Dany
is not in court that day!
Does
LICADHO believe that Mr Fletcher is entitled to what passes for a fair trial in
Cambodia? If so, will LICADHO, at the very least, ask APLE if their client will
be in court on 20th Nov and send an observer to the court on that
day?
best
wishes
James
Ricketson
You have repeatedly stated that the alleged victim's hymen was unbroken even though she was allegedly raped. You say this as of it indicates that she was not in fact raped. Perhaps I have missed where you addressed this issue in your blog, but you do realize that rape does not necessarily involve vaginal penetration and/or deep vaginal penetration, don't you? The presence of an intact hymen does not necessarily exclude the possibility that a rape has occurred.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous, the court documents describe, in quite graphic detail, what is alleged to have occurred. This is not a great translation but there is not doubt, in this and other descriptions, that it is alleged that David Fletcher put his penis inside Yang Dany's vagina: "he accused laid down her on the bed, undressed her and pressed her hands and foot that she could not move and was the accused raped by putting his penis into her vagina and moved until reaching his passion." It is fairly clear, from the working of Yang Dany's statement, that it was written not by a virgin with no experience of sex but by someone who had not bothered to ask Dany if she had ever had sex before. All the indications are that Yang Dany's statement was written by someone at APLE and that she was then asked (told!?) to sign it if she and her mother were to get the $30,000 reward that had been offered by way of compensation.
DeleteLet me add here that in my conversations with Yang Dany in Oct and Nov this year it was clear that she is still very naive when it comes to sex. That an 18 year old Cambodian virgin would use the expression "reached his passion" to describe an orgasm is very difficult to believe. That a French person would use such an expression to describe an orgasm is much easier to believe.
DeleteThis is not the first case where APLE claims rape took place, while examination by a doctor shows no sign of sexual abuse.
DeleteAustralian national Giuseppe Nicolosi has been convicted of raping a 5 year old girl and is doing 8 years in Prey Sar prison
The small girl testified in court saying nothing ever happened to her and Giuseppe is nice man, a doctor's report states there are no signs of sexual abuse and the girl's mother tells the judged that her husband pressured their daughter to complain Mr. Nicolosi because "The NGO had promised $5000 compensation"
I've said before that as far as I'm concerned you can hang pedophiles. But there is a very real danger out there that if you are a white heterosexual male traveling in a place like Cambodia, and especially if you are much older than the (adult) Asian woman you are with, you may be accused of pedophilia. Especially by female do-gooders - local or foreign - who throw the charge of "pedophile" against any man traveling with a younger Asian woman.
DeleteIn cosy NGO world Naly Pilorge and Dr Pung are not going to be critical of their friends in APLE.
ReplyDeleteThis short article is from the Times of India, 2007:
ReplyDeleteKOLKATA: A 30-year-old French national, in the city for a global seminar, tried to commit suicide in a five-star hotel on Friday.
Darnaudet Thierry checked into the hotel on Wednesday evening, two days ahead of the seminar on ‘global humanity’. He put up a ‘Do not disturb’ sign on the door and bolted it. After that, Thierry neither stepped out nor took any call. Initially, none bothered. But when 24 hours passed without any sign of him, the authorities decided to take a look. They knocked on his door and then tried calling him up through the intercom.
Hotel employees opened the door and found Thierry unconscious on the floor. On the bed was a bottle of wine, strips of sleeping pills and a suicide note in English, said DC (detective department) Ajoy Kumar. "I don’t want to live. My body should be burnt and the ashes thrown into a river," the note said.
Though Thierry is still in ICU, his condition is stable. Police have informed the French Consulate and asked it to inform Thierry’s relatives in France.
Clearly, this has not been posted by Darnaudet Thierry himself but it certainly seems, from the sheer volume of complaints to be found about this man, and about APLE, that human rights organisations such as LICADHO cannot simply sit on the sidelines and say nothing. Somaly Mam may have lied about her past to raise money for her Foundation but this is a far lesser crime than fabricating evidence and providing financial inducements to poor Cambodian women to frame men for crimes they did not commit in order to impress donors and sponsors with the 'good work' APLE is doing.
Delete
ReplyDelete1. when the president of Action pour les Enfants tries to commit suicide, it is not just about anybody. He runs several child protection organisations, among one was called (UNCLE !) and a childrens home in India. His organisation is trying to eradicate pedophelia in Asian Countries like Cambodia and India and who knows where else. His dramatic suicide note suggests, that he could have gotten involved with those he is proclaiming to protect. That would be a plausible reason to commit suicide. Unfortunately the Cambodian Press seems to ignore this fact completely. To them it's a non event. That's why it took 2 Month for the info to arrive here. The link still can be found under google search: thierry darnaudet india.
2. Considering the scams these groups are involved in, it would be good for the human race if more ngo's workers followed his example, but a bit more successfully.
3. WHY DID HE DO IT ?
WHY DID THE MEDIA IN CAMBODIA NOT MENTION A SINGLE LINE ON HIS SUICIDE ATTEMPT ?
WHY IS NONE OF THE www.aplecambodia.org replying to this subject, when they are soo eager to report on almost every white male in cambodia, albeit in their homemade reports and database which must by now have multiple pictures of all caucasian men in cambodia ?
AND NO, this is not to protect a single pedo but the privacy rights of everyone that happens to fall in their path.
AND YES, every pedo has to get the max. sentence that the law provides since the damage done one the soul and well being of a child can never be compensated for.
AND YES, some of the child protection NGO's should start digging in their own backyards. (Maybe that's exactly what Darnaudet did !)
4. last month Thierry Daurnaudet was arrested in Calcutta for badly beating a child in his care. This is not the first child in his homes to be beaten and there are serious questions to be asked as to why anyone can set themselves up as an NGO looking after children, Thierry believes he is doing things the Indian way !!! Malik Kartoon was left black and blue and taken to hospital by his sister Rabia where Drs advised her to seek police involvement. As children of the very poor their voice will not hold the weight that Mr Daurnaudet's will and he is likely to get away with this travesty yet again.
The report of THE TIMES OF INDIA which in July 2007 reported a suicide attempt by french national Thierry Darnaudet, President and Founder of Action pour les Enfants or APLE in Cambodia, India and elsewhere in the world was erased from the the Times of India archive and the rest of the web for that matter. No trace to be found anymore. Its like it never happened. In many other instances i have found Information that was critical or negative on APLE's Inquisition-like actions here disappearing from the web, completely and without a trace. It appears to me that someone in their org. must use Hacker Tools to sanitize the web, not unlike the US based Scientology Church that also has a history of intimidation, legal harassment etc.
ReplyDeleteAPLE is accused that they deliberately entrap and trick western men into sex with underaged so they can have them arrested and prosecuted, brandmarked as pedophile and destroyed for their rest of their lives. They are not interested to prevent any kind of child abuse. Quite the contrary they are now accused to use underaged that where previously involved in pedophile cases as a bait and lure western men into sexual acts, while they and the police watch it to happen. In the latest case they apparently used an underaged girl that was in the custody of another NGO Shelter and used her as bait for a french guy.
I am going to re-publish comments left on an earlier blog entry (#13)
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Ricketson
I admire your courage for standing up against organisations such as Action pour les Enfants (APLE). APLE is a very powerful, but also very dangerous organisation. I've been fighting them for years, trying to expose their criminal activities, but without any success so far.
Over the years I've collected and archived data from many cases involving APLE. 9 out 10 cases have something strange. None of the cases APLE is involved with seems to be genuine. All of the cases where the suspect was guilty beyond doubt, APLE came in later; after the arrest was already made.
Some people come to Cambodia for the sole purpose of sexually abusing children. Nowadays, social awareness has grown and Combodian police is equipped enough to handle such cases themselves, without the need of interference or 'support' from APLE.
In all other cases APLE was the first to initiate the case, followed by 'victims' testifying nothing ever happened, parents complaining they were pushed and pressured by APLE or admitting APLE offered huge compensation in return for a signed complaint. And so on, and so on . . .
Action pour les Enfants (APLE Cambodia), founded by Thierry Darnaudet, is a criminal organisation, abusing and violating the human rights of Cambodian children and their parents. This organisation is a danger and a threat to Cambodian society and needs to be exposed and dismantled for good!
This was posted by 'Anonymous' last month on my blog entry # 13:
ReplyDeleteFor years the NGO’s, the media, and the Cambodian government have propogated the myth that an invasion of Western pedophiles is the root cause of child sex-abuse in Cambodia.
The sad truth is that 99% of the abuse of children in Cambodia is commited by Cambodians themselves (according to several independent Human Rights Organizations). Western ourists make up only 1/3 of the remaining 1 percent, yet this group has been targeted
Each group has it’s own motives but they generally boil dawn to money. The press and most blogs are so busy vilifying the accused that little effort has been made to take a critical look at the case. The convictions are used as self-evedence of guilt.
Unfortunately, the Cambodian justice system is designed to guarantee a guilty verdict. There are no juries. Child victims are confined and denied access while being interogated for weeks. (Remember the McMartin case). Under the old ‘Code Nepoleon’ one is considered guilty until proven innocent. In a reecent Siem Riep case in which the accused was acquited, the prosecuting attorney said, “The court did not have the right to acquit hime because they had failed to prove him innocent of the charges.”
In The Desault case a few years ago, his Cambodian step-son was detained an interogatted. At his trial the police presented a ‘statement” from the boy but the boy recanted it. Desault was convicted anyway. To this day the boy (now in his teens) says Desault did nothing. Recently an American teacher made ABC Nightline for “abusing up to 10 girls”.Despite a two year investigation, they only came up with a misdemeanor charge of touching two girls. At his trial The first girl confessed she had been punished by her family when he caught her stealing a phone from the school. The second girl testified adamantly that he had NEVER tried to touch her. When asked why her ‘statement’ said he had, she said the police had written her statement and told her she must sign it.
Most cases in Cambodia would never make it to trial in America. In fact, if the case does have substance, the accused are almost always extradicted. If they are not extradicted it usually means the case is shit, but in Cambodia conviction is almost 100%.
another 'Anonymous' posting re APLE:
ReplyDeleteThere have been Cambodian TV documentaries exposing APLE, many cases that have been won in court by innocent persons. So called called 'victims' have come clean with testimony to the court. There have been cover ups of the atrocities against the alleged underage victims who are kept locked in the APLE hostel for months and years while the trial goes on under the pretense that if they are let out on the street they will fall prey to the influance of the criminals. Mothers and children are themselves charged to keep them under fear of telling the truth. To get free if you are charged you will have to pay at least 50,000 usd. This money goes to APLE through it’s lawyers, to the judges, to the prison officials, a very small fraction to the victims, and to the press. The press especially Cambodia Daily, is fed with allegations and trumped up stories that find their way into the International press through Rueters that bias the case and damage the reputation and life of an accused even before the due process of law and trial is complete. The depth and extent of this corruption is beyond belief. And the way it ruins the lives of the used victims, the false imprisoned in Prey Sar where conditions are so severe and the stigma’s attached to this type of crime drive people even to suicide or life threatening health conditions develop. Such abused prisoners are ripe candidates for paying any amount of money to get out. This is the goal of APLE, money, and not fighting sex crimes. Many Cambodian officials and right up to the Royal family themselves use teenage girls for enjoyment but the Cambodians are never charged like foreigners.
And yet another comment re APLE, posted anonymously:
ReplyDeleteI am a victim of APLE’s injustice and set up having spent 1 year in Prey Sar prison for false charges.
There are numerous cases where APLE has seduced or set up foreign tourists in underage sex scandals for the pupose of extracting huge amounts of money for themselves.
APLE uses the same victims over and over again and sometimes they are not at all underaged but have no birth records to prove anything so the claim of APLE and the so called victims is held as the truth.
From within the system no one can tell the truth or they will have no chance of justice. And once outside again if you have paid to get out you never want to speak out for fear of some other trumped charges in your country of origin.
Dun Vibhol is a honest man who is trying to save and crusade for innocent people exploited from the APLE. Yes there are legitimate cases and the perpetrators should be dealt with to the full scope of the law.
The common understanding in the impune judical system for alleged sex offenders is guilty or innocent makes no differance, pay and go home and do not pay and get sentenced. Some Cambodian officials and courts judges are also invloved in this racket.
In my case my family receieved blackmail and extortion letters from APLE to pay 40,000 USD or i would have to spend 20 years in prison. This is just the tip of the iceburg as far as the NGO-Police nexus of the real crimes commited in Cambodia.
Naly Pilorge, the Director of Licadho, is a friend of Thierry Daurnaudet and Ana Pinheiro. There is no way Naly is going to be critical of them in public regardless of what her mother thinks.
ReplyDeleteYes, you dont shit in your own nest. The NGO world in Cambodia is corrupt and self serving and no one NGO is going to call bullshit on another in case the favour is returned. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil sums up the NGO world Licadho is a part of.
DeleteSomaly Mam seems like a saint compared with these APLE people!
ReplyDeleteYes, all Somaly Mam did, as far I can see from what I have read, is lie about her past. She was not, as far as I can tell, involved in the framing of 'pedophiles'. However, just as LICADHO turned a blind eye to Somaly Mam's lies for many years (common knowledge since 2005), so too does the NGO now turn a blind eye to APLE's use of fabricated evidence to frame men for sexual offences and, in so doing, maintain the high profile the NGO needs if it is to guarantee continued funding through sponsors and donors. And if there are not sufficient pedophiles to keep up with funding-driven demand, find men who fit the generic pedophile profile and some kids (and their families) in need of some money and set them up.
DeleteAllegations have been made for many years now that APLE is a corrupt NGO that exploits both men who get caught up in its scams and the women like Yang Dany who are promised large sums of money if they press charges. Licadho, Ad Hoc and the media have know all this for years but have done or said nothing. I agree with James. Somaly Mam is an abel in comparison with these APLE criminals.
ReplyDeleteIf you've got money in Cambodia you can do what you like. And APLE has lots of money thanks to the brilliance of its business strategy of setting up men as pedophiles and raking in the cash from people who don't look beyond the surface and presume the NGO is doing a great job. APLE should be run out of Cambodia.
Delete