On 29 July 2008, a publication called Eureka Street ran an article by Harry Nicolaides, an Australian writer then resident in Thailand. Nicolaides had visited Tachilek, a town on the Thai-Burmese border where child pornography was openly sold. Neither the Burmese authorities or the Thai border guards showed the slightest interest in putting a stop to this trade. Here is the link to Nicolaides’ article. He describes a market in videos documenting the binding, rape, and torture of thousands of children, most of them apparently in Europe or North America, most of the rest in Asia. Men from those regions travel freely through the area, not searched by Thai border guards.
On 29 August 2008, Thai officials arrested Nicolaides and charged him with lèse-majeste. A novel he had published four years before, which had sold a grand total of seven copies, contained a brief passage about a fictional Crown Prince; Thai authorities claimed that this passage was insulting to the actual Crown Prince. On 19 January 2009, Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison. On 21 February 2009, the king of Thailand granted Nicolaides a pardon and sent him home to Melbourne.
The quote below comes from an interview published in the Greek-Australian newspaper Neos Kosmos on 22 February 2009:
Harry admits that an article by him published in Eureka Street, a Melbourne based publication, alleging that Thai police turned a blind eye to the importation of child pornography from Burma, may have impacted on his situation, “It may have put me on the radar, I knew I was always provocative but at worst if anything at all happened I thought I would be deported, never jailed.”
While Nicolaides was in prison, none of his defenders mentioned a word about Tachilek in public, apparently for fear that it would alienate the Thais and hurt his chances of release. Now that he is out, the time has come to say something about it. To whom can it be said?
Organizations Fighting Child Pornography
Children’s Rights International: A page of 22 links to organizations involved in this effort.
Organizations Fighting Child Abuse
Organizations Fighting Human Trafficking
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
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acilius
believer1
cymast
/ December 29, 2009My letter to Amnesty International:
Dear International Secretariat,
I write to you on behalf of the thousands of children who are kidnapped, held captive, beaten, and sexually abused in the global child sex slave industry.
I first became aware of the staggering extent of the child sex slave industry when I read about the case of Australian journalist and teacher Harry Nicolaides, who was imprisoned in Thailand. As I’m sure you are aware, from 2000 to 2001, Nicolaides was working as an English teacher in Thailand. While travelling through the immigration checkpoint between the Thailand and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, he saw child sex vendors’ videos depicting the rape and torture of abducted 5 and 6-year old children being trafficked across the border. He wrote an exposé of the child sex abuse trade between Thailand the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
His article can be found online at: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=8264
Almost 2 years later, Nicolaides was absconded by Thai police and arrested for lèse majesté- or insulting the crown- with an obscure fictional novel he had written. Though those trumped-up charges were eventually pardoned and Nicolaides is now free, this story serves as a reminder of how governments may be complicit regarding the child sex slave industry operating within their borders.
Every year, thousands of children are kidnapped- or sold- to child sex traffickers from around the world. These traffickers travel specifically to the poorest parts of North America, Asia, and Europe to abduct or purchase children between the ages of 4 and 12 to be used in pornography, prostitution, and as sex slaves. Child sex slaves as young as 4 are regularly beaten and raped several times a day by their captors and by the clients who pay for sex abuse sessions with the children. Some of the children die from their injuries, many are left scarred and broken, and many are infected with sexually transmitted diseases. When and if they reach the age of 13 they are thrown out on the street.
If you have ever been the parent or guardian of a child, or remember being a child yourself, you know the plight of these abducted children is the worst plight, unimaginable. No matter your belief or creed, if you are fully human, you know that sexually abusing children is pure evil. It doesn’t matter from where the children are kidnapped, or what nationality the are, or where these 4 to 12-year-olds end up, or the laws and the cultures of the countries that perpetrate this- the child sex abuse industry is an evil we must eradicate. It isn’t going to go away on its own.
Please renew efforts to focus your attention and resources on the global child sex slave industry, as these children are victims of political corruption at its worst.
Also please let me know if I can be of any assistance in this campaign. Additionally, if you believe this campaign would be better suited to another human rights organization, I would be grateful if you would direct me to that organization.
Thank you.
Respectfully,