VZCZCXRO4020
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHRL #0601 0821607
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231607Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7627
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0234
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0049
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH 0033

UNCLAS BERLIN 000601 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/AGS, EUR/PGI, DRL/IL, G/TIP, INL/HSTC, AND EAP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN ELAB SMIG ASEC PGOV GM
SUBJECT: GERMANY/TIP - POLICE INVESTIGATIONS HIGHLIGHT 
EFFORTS AGAINST CHILD SEX TOURISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 
 
¶1.  Summary:  A number of TIP-related police investigations 
concluded in recent weeks highlight German efforts to 
prosecute German nationals allegedly engaged in child sex 
tourism and other forms of trafficking in South East Asian 
countries.  Over the past two years, German law enforcement 
agencies have stepped up cooperation with police and 
government authorities in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Since the beginning of 2006, the German Federal Office of 
Criminal Investigation (BKA) has stepped up cooperation with 
Thai law enforcement officials to investigate German sex 
tourists and pedophiles operating in Thailand.  The goal is 
to facilitate prosecution of perpetrators in Thailand, as 
well as in Germany.  According to BKA reports, Thai 
authorities, working with BKA officials, conducted a raid in 
the red light district of Pattaya in Thailand in December 
¶2006.  They arrested six persons, including one German 
national, on charges of sexual abuse of minors.  The BKA 
conducted subsequent investigations in Germany to build a 
case to permit prosecutors from the German city of Giessen to 
pursue charges against sex tourists in Germany as well. 
 
¶3.  In cooperation with the BKA and prosecutors in the German 
city of Giessen, a second German national was arrested March 
8 in Pattaya, Thailand on charges of sexually abusing a 
minor.  German law enforcement officials view the recent 
arrests as the first major successes of their efforts to 
improve cooperation with Thai officials.  In a press 
statement, BKA President Joerg Ziercke said the joint 
investigations send a clear signal to German child sex 
tourists that Germany will go after them in Thailand and 
Germany. 
 
¶4.  German cooperation facilitated the successful prosecution 
of two Germans convicted in a Cambodian court on charges of 
sexual abuse of minors.  The two Germans were sentenced, 
respectively, to 28 years in prison and 12 years in prison on 
March 9.  The BKA reportedly assisted in the investigation by 
retrieving erased evidence on the defendants' computers, 
which showed photos of the Germans abusing the children.  In 
another case featured in German media, a German citizen 
arrested in Cambodia in February on charges of sexual abuse 
of children has since been extradited to Kiel, Germany to 
stand trial. 
 
¶5.  On March 8, Berlin police, in cooperation with the Berlin 
prosecutor's office, arrested a Vietnamese couple in Berlin 
suspected of alien smuggling and trafficking for purposes of 
labor exploitation.  The couple is accused of holding 
Vietnamese women in peonage.  One of the women had been held 
for six months and forced to work as a domestic servant in 
order to pay off a "smuggling fee" of 9,000 euros. 
KOENIG