From: kamol@ipied.tu.ac.TH (Kamol Hengkietisak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Bangkok Post Nov 20: Child problems to big for Govt
Date: 20 Nov 1992 16:37:50 +1100
Organization: Mail/News gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: munnari.oz.au


THE Chuan Leekpai Government will never be able to solve the 
problem of abuse of children's rights because of its magnitude in 
Thailand, according to Magsaysay award winner Dr Prawase Wasi.
 
Dr Prawase told the Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights 
(CPCR) awards ceremony yesterday that many people were relying on 
the Chuan Government, but they should also see what tools the 
Government has at its proposal.
 
He said people usually become disenchanted with governments within 
a year because they are unable to solve the problems they promised 
to tackle when they entered office. 
 
Dr Prawase said the people should not rely too heavily on the 
Government to solve these social problems because it takes all 
fields of society to make a contribution, including community 
bodies, non-government organisations, various professionals, 
academics and more.
 
He said one of the ways to solve the problems was to share the 
social pressure.
 
"People feel at ease when they know others also share the same 
problem," he said. 
 
Dr Prawase said the society would become worse and problems like 
prostitution would increase if the Government concentrated only on 
solving economic problems.
The CPCR yesterday called on the Government to play a bigger role 
in protecting the rights of children.
 
The centre, which has about 2,000 volunteers nationwide, asked the 
Government to appoint a committee to study the laws and develop 
institutions, both in the public and the private sectors, to work 
for the benefit of children.
 
It also asked the Government to reconsider the five-year National 
Economic and Social Development Plan, especially those points 
which could affect family life negatively, like seperating 
children from their parents.
 
Pregnant women at work should also be given job security and 
benefits from their employers, and the law should protect them 
from working in hazardous environments.
 
The Government should also institute immediate measures to help 
children who suffer abuse and are badly treated by society.
 
CPCR volunteer Yakher Sae Mung, 40, said he rescued about 50-60 
women each year from brothels.
 
Mr Yakher, a village headman from Mae Chan District in Chiang Rai, 
said he became a volunteer for the centre because the parents of 
people in nearby villages often complained to him that their 
children had been offered jobs in restaurants but were then sent 
to brothels and were badly treated.
 
After hearing complaints from the parents, Mr Yakher said he did 
not contact the Public Welfare Department officials or any 
governmental organisations because they were too bureaucratic.
 
He said most of the girls in these cases were aged between 11 and 
18 years, and both they and their parents were uneducated and 
easily fooled. 
 
Mr Yakher said he had been a volunteer for six years already and 
was the only volunteer in his village.
 
He said a girl who was sent back to Burma recently returned to the 
centre after she was badly treated by her own people. 
 
Mr Yakher said the rate of girls from the north being sent to 
brothels had fallen because tribal people were now better educated 
and cautious of outsiders.
 
Chulalongkorn University Law Faculty lecturer Vitit Muntarbhorn 
said the Government should see if the present laws are being 
implemented before going ahead and introducing new ones.
 
He said the MPs should see that the laws are properly implemented.
 
Mr Vitit said the government initiative to amend the Prostitution 
Law was only a minor point in solving the problem.
 
He said the protection of children's rights should be the main 
agenda above everything, and there should be a "community watch" 
by the private sector. 
 
The lecturer also called for a greater say for the public on ways 
to solve this problem because "quality law enforcement" does not 
really exist.
 
Mr Vitit said Burmese girls released from brothels were sent back 
to their country, but those infected with HIV are believed to be 
segregated and discriminated against.
 
He called on the Government not to send these people back to their 
country unless they could be assured of their independence and 
human rights.
 
A Chinese girl, Chang Leecheng, 18, who was sent to the CPCR five 
months ago, said she was rescued by a Taiwanese man who paid the 
brothel owner in Pattaya 10,000 baht to free her.
 
Ms Chang, who speaks little Thai, said she now works at the centre 
and helps with the cooking and domestic work.
 
She said she was put into a van along with three other girls from 
Mae Sai in the north and taken to Pattaya where she had to work in 
a brothel for eight months.
 
Saengjan (surname not known), 8, was sent to the centre yesterday 
by Nonthaburi Police Station after working as a domestic servant 
for three years.
 
Saengjan, a Chiang Mai girl, was sold to her employers after her 
parents died three years ago and has been working ever since.
 
She said she was badly treated by her employer and had to do all 
kinds of household work.