VZCZCXYZ0008
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0439 1622031
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 112005Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH PRIORITY 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060439 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Cambodia of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent 
release.  The text of the TIP Report country narrative is 
provided, both for use in informing the Government of 
Cambodia and in any local media release by Post's public 
affairs section on June 16 or thereafter.  Drawing on 
information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide 
the host government with the text of the TIP Report narrative 
no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, 
AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 
for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, however, that any public 
release of the Report's information should not/not precede 
the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 Mpm local time Monday 
on June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local time 
on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform the 
appropriate official in the Government of Cambodia of the 
June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points 
in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of 
the country narrative provided in para 8.  For countries 
where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it 
is particularly important to advise governments prior to the 
Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Cambodia,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
CAMBODIA (TIER 2 WATCH LIST) 
-------------------------------- 
 
Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for 
men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of 
commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.  Women and 
girls are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia for 
exploitative labor as domestic workers and forced 
prostitution.  Some Cambodian men migrate willingly to 
Thailand and Malaysia for work and are subsequently subjected 
to conditions of forced labor in the fishing, construction, 
and agricultural industries.  Cambodian men and women 
repatriated from Malaysia report experiencing conditions of 
forced labor after migrating there for work with the 
assistance of Cambodian labor recruitment companies. 
Cambodian children are trafficked to Thailand and Vietnam to 
beg, sell candy or flowers, or shine shoes.  Parents 
sometimes sell their children into involuntary servitude to 
serve as beggars, into brothels for commercial sexual 
exploitation, or into domestic servitude.  Within Cambodia, 
children are trafficked for forced begging, waste scavenging, 
salt production, brick making, and quarrying. 
 
In Cambodia, a significant proportion of female victims of 
trafficking for prostitution is ethnic Vietnamese, some of 
whom were born in Vietnam.   Some Cambodian and ethnic 
Vietnamese women and girls are trafficked internally to areas 
in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville for forced 
prostitution in brothels and karaoke bars.  NGO and media 
reports indicated that internal sex trafficking of women and 
girls from ethnic minority groups and of ethnic Vietnamese is 
an increasing problem.  The sale of virgin girls continues to 
be problematic in the country, with foreign (mostly Asian) 
and Cambodian men paying $800 to $4,000 to have sex with 
virgins.  Cambodia is a destination country for foreign child 
sex tourists, with increasing reports of Asian men traveling 
to Cambodia in order to have sex with underage virgin girls. 
Some Cambodian women who migrated to Taiwan as a result of 
brokered international marriages may have been subsequently 
subjected to conditions of forced prostitution or forced 
labor. 
 
The Government of Cambodia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  Despite 
these overall efforts, the government did not show evidence 
of progress in convicting and punishing human trafficking 
offenders ) including complicit public officials ) and 
protecting trafficking victims; therefore, Cambodia is placed 
on Tier 2 Watch List.   After enactment of a law that 
included anti-trafficking provisions in February 2008, the 
government obtained the convictions of 12 trafficking 
offenders and initiated 71 trafficking prosecutions over the 
last year, a significant decrease from 52 convictions 
obtained during the previous reporting period.  The 
government also failed to prosecute and convict officials 
involved in trafficking-related complicity, despite a high 
prevalence of trafficking-related corruption in Cambodia. 
Efforts to protect and assist victims did not improve during 
the reporting period, and victims continued to be detained 
and punished for acts committed as a direct result of being 
trafficked, including for prostitution.  During 2008, there 
were reports of prostituted women being detained and 
physically abused by police and Ministry of Social Affairs 
Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSAVY) officials. 
 
Recommendations for Cambodia:  Train law enforcement and 
other  government officials to place greater emphasis on 
enforcing the human trafficking provisions in the February 
2008 law; significantly improve the number of prosecutions, 
convictions, and punishments of trafficking offenders; 
substantially improve efforts to prosecute, convict, and 
criminally punish public officials complicit in trafficking; 
hold labor recruiting agencies criminally responsible for 
labor trafficking induced by fraudulent recruitment; improve 
interagency cooperation and collaboration, particularly 
between government officials and law enforcement officers 
working on trafficking; increase efforts to proactively 
identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups such 
as foreign women and children arrested for prostitution; 
institute procedures to ensure that victims are not arrested, 
incarcerated, or otherwise punished for acts committed as a 
direct result of being trafficked; and conduct a public 
awareness campaign aimed at reducing demand by the local 
population and Asian visitors for commercial sex acts. 
 
Prosecution 
------------ 
The Government of Cambodia demonstrated uneven law 
enforcement efforts to combat trafficking during the last 
year.  The February 2008 law on the Suppression of Human 
Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation covers a wide 
variety of offenses with 12 out of its 30 criminal articles 
explicitly addressing human trafficking offenses.  Cambodian 
law prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes 
penalties that are sufficiently stringent and commensurate 
with penalties for other grave crimes, such as rape.  Under 
the new law, the government initiated 71 prosecutions of 
human trafficking offenders during the reporting period. 
Because the new law covers a wide range of offenses, not all 
government officials have appeared to distinguish between the 
law,s articles on trafficking offenses and non-trafficking 
crimes such as prostitution, pornography, and child sex 
abuse.  As a result, law enforcement has focused on 
prostitution-related crimes, and many police, courts, and 
other government officials appear to believe that enforcing 
all prostitution articles of the law contributes to efforts 
to combat trafficking.  Following the passage of the law, 
Cambodian police conducted numerous raids on brothels, and 
detained a large number of women in prostitution, while 
failing to arrest, investigate or charge any large number of 
persons for human trafficking offenses.  Moreover, the 
detained females in prostitution may have included some 
trafficking victims, though police made few attempts to 
identify, assist, or protect them.  The Phnom Penh Municipal 
Court handed down convictions of 11 trafficking offenders and 
initiated prosecutions of 22 offenders in 2008, compared to 
52 convictions in 2007.  During the reporting period, some 
Cambodian courts charged trafficking offenders with less 
serious offenses that carry shorter punishments.  The 
Cambodian police reported that they arrested 41 trafficking 
perpetrators during the reporting period.  However, police 
did not always follow through on NGO investigations into 
entertainment establishments in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and 
Sihanoukville allegedly involved in trafficking.  Some 
observers continued to report the general inability of law 
enforcement and other government officials to act on 
trafficking leads.  The Ministry of Interior provided 
training to some police officers on the new Law on the 
Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. 
There were reports of Cambodian migrant workers falling 
victim to trafficking due to the exploitative conditions in 
destination countries, such as Malaysia.  The government did 
not report any prosecutions or convictions of labor 
recruitment companies that were allegedly involved in labor 
trafficking.  From April 2008 to November 2008, the 
government banned all marriages of Cambodians to foreigners 
out of  concern that some Cambodian women were vulnerable to 
trafficking, and subsequently implemented new regulations in 
an attempt to prevent trafficking through international 
marriages. 
 
Corruption is pervasive in Cambodia and it is widely believed 
that many individuals, including police and judicial 
officials, are both directly and indirectly involved in 
trafficking.  Some local police and government officials are 
known to extort money or accept bribes from brothel owners, 
sometimes on a daily basis, in order to allow the brothels to 
continue operating.  Citing a lack of evidence, the Phnom 
Penh Municipal Court in September 2008 dismissed the case of 
the former President of Cambodia,s Appeals Court, who had 
been removed from her position in 2007 for reportedly 
accepting $30,000 for the release of two brothel owners who 
had been previously convicted for trafficking offenses.  The 
brothel owners were later re-arrested and remain in jail. 
The former Appeals Court President has since been appointed 
to a staff-level government position and remains under 
investigation.  During the reporting period, two immigration 
police officers were removed from their positions for 
corruption and it remains unclear if they were allowed to 
assume other positions.  There were no officials prosecuted 
or convicted for trafficking-related complicity. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Government of Cambodia did not improve efforts to protect 
victims of trafficking during the reporting period.  The 
government did not operate trafficking shelters or provide 
any specialized assistance to trafficking victims.  The 
government continued to refer victims to NGO shelters, but 
did not itself offer further assistance.  Vietnamese victims 
are the only known foreign victims in Cambodia, and they are 
provided temporary residence in NGO shelters with legal, 
educational, and counseling services while awaiting 
repatriation, although there are a limited number of NGO 
shelters with the ability to provide proper care for 
Vietnamese victims, due to a lack of foreign language 
capabilities.  While some of the detained females in 
prostitution were assisted by NGOs, others were reportedly 
turned over by police to brothel owners or parents, and 
subsequently returned to brothels.  There were also reports 
that some police officers and guards working at the two 
Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation 
(MOSAVY) rehabilitation centers raped, beat, and extorted 
women rescued in the raids.  The Law on the Suppression of 
Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation contains no 
provisions to protect trafficking victims in general. 
Victims were encouraged by police to participate in 
investigations and prosecutions of traffickers, though 
conditioning by brothel owners and pimps, as well as credible 
fears of retaliation from traffickers, and police corruption 
in some cases continue to hinder victim testimony.  Police, 
court officials, and judges often failed to separate victims 
from perpetrators during raids, detention, and trials. 
Foreign pedophiles sometimes succeeded in paying off victims 
or their families to cease cooperation with law enforcement 
or NGOs.  The government did not provide witness protection 
to victims, including those participating in the prosecution 
of their traffickers.  In a Sihanoukville trafficking case, a 
suspected pedophile and his girlfriend ) a suspected 
trafficker ) were released from prison on bail, and 
subsequently threatened the families of the victims, and 
demanded the victims be returned to them.  Although victims 
had the opportunity to file civil suits and seek legal action 
against their traffickers, most did not have the resources to 
do so.  In 2008, MOSAVY placed 101 Cambodian victims who 
reportedly had been trafficked to Thailand at a 
jointly-operated MOSAVY-IOM Transit Center in Poipet.  MOSAVY 
reported that a total of 505 victims of sex trafficking were 
referred to them by local police; according to UNIAP sources, 
many of these 505 individuals were women voluntarily in 
prostitution, and not trafficking victims. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Government of Cambodia demonstrated limited efforts to 
prevent trafficking over the last year.  The government 
conducted some public awareness campaigns aimed at reducing 
the significant demand for child prostitution generated by 
Cambodian and other Asian pedophiles.  In March 2008, the 
National Task Force on trafficking launched a nationwide 
anti-trafficking campaign and a national dialogue on 
trafficking via public forums in five provinces across 
Cambodia that continued into July 2008.  The forums also 
served to inform communities of the new Law on the 
Suppression of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual 
Exploitation, forms of trafficking, and new trafficking 
trends.  The Ministry of Tourism continued collaboration with 
an NGO on advertisements in tourist brochures warning of the 
penalties for engaging in child sex tourism, and also 
continued to hold workshops for hospitality industry owners 
and staff on how to identify and intervene in cases of 
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children by 
tourists.  The government secured the convictions of six 
foreigners who sexually abused Cambodian children, though 
during the year, there were two reported cases of prison 
sentences of foreign pedophiles being suspended, including 
one Russian pedophile who fled the country while on bail 
after spending six months in pre-trail detention.  Cambodian 
forces participating in peacekeeping initiatives abroad 
received training on trafficking in persons prior to 
deployment. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was Cambodia downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 TIP Report? 
 
A: Despite some efforts to combat trafficking, the government 
did not show evidence of progress in convicting and punishing 
human trafficking offenders ) including complicit public 
officials ) and protecting trafficking victims.  The Phnom 
Penh Municipal Court convicted 11 trafficking offenders and 
initiated prosecutions of 22 offenders in 2008, compared to 
52 convictions in 2007.  The government did not report any 
prosecutions or convictions of labor recruitment companies 
that were allegedly involved in labor trafficking.  There 
were no officials prosecuted or convicted for 
trafficking-related complicity.  Efforts to protect and 
assist victims did not improve during the reporting period, 
and victims continued to be detained and punished for acts 
committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including 
for prostitution. 
 
Q2: What progress has Cambodia made in the past year? 
 
A: The government conducted some public awareness campaigns 
aimed at reducing the significant demand for child 
prostitution generated by Cambodian and other Asian 
pedophiles.  In March 2008, The National Task Force on 
trafficking launched a nationwide anti-trafficking campaign 
and a national dialogue on trafficking via public forums in 
five provinces across Cambodia that continued into July 2008. 
 The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) continued collaboration with 
an NGO on advertisements in tourist brochures warning of the 
penalties for engaging in child sex tourism, and also 
continued to hold workshops for hospitality industry owners 
and staff on how to identify and intervene in cases of 
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children by 
tourists. 
 
Q3: What efforts could Cambodia make to improve its fight 
against trafficking in persons? 
 
A: The Government of Cambodia could:  train law enforcement 
and other  government officials to place greater emphasis on 
enforcing the human trafficking provisions in the February 
2008 law; significantly improve the number of prosecutions, 
convictions, and punishments of trafficking offenders, 
particularly those in organized crime; substantially improve 
efforts to prosecute, convict, and criminally punish public 
officials complicit in trafficking; hold labor recruiting 
agencies criminally responsible for labor trafficking induced 
by fraudulent recruitment; improve interagency cooperation 
and collaboration, particularly between government officials 
and law enforcement officers working on trafficking; increase 
efforts to proactively identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable groups such as foreign women and children arrested 
for prostitution; institute procedures to ensure that victims 
are not arrested, incarcerated, or otherwise punished for 
acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; and 
conduct a public awareness campaign aimed at reducing demand 
by the local population and Asian visitors for commercial sex 
acts. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON