Interior minister Sar Sokha and his wife visiting the victim of an alleged gang rape by Thai soldiers, at Battambang Provincial Hospital on Nov 17. - Supplied
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian authorities are investigating a rape complaint which was filed by an 18-year-old returning migrant worker. She alleges that she was raped by a group of Thai soldiers in black uniforms as she and a group of workers crossed the border into Cambodia on the night of Nov 15.
Ros Chivy, deputy commissioner in charge of the Office for Combating Human Trafficking, Child Protection and Gender Affairs at the Battambang Provincial Police, said on Monday (Nov 17), that Kamrieng district police met her at the Kamrieng Health Center and formally took her complaint on Sunday.
“Our officers met her at the health centre when she was stable enough to provide information. We’ve already received her complaint, but for now we are prioritising the victim’s health. We are helping her at the hospital… We are currently working on the forensic examination at the provincial hospital,” she explained.
The victim has been transferred from the district hospital for further treatment at Battambang Provincial Hospital. Chivy declined to make further comment as the case is still under active investigation.
The victim is one of 13 other Cambodian migrant workers — including other five other women and one small child — who crossed the border from Thailand back into Cambodia on the night of Nov 15. At that time, a group of Thai black-uniform soldiers confronted and questioned them, according to an official from the Kamrieng Migrant Worker Reception Center.
The centre received the group on Nov 16 after they had crossed near the Svay Chek Border Protection Police Post in Svay village, Boeung Raing commune, Kamrieng district.
He said the victim was allegedly gang-raped by several soldiers, while the other women were not sexually assaulted because they were accompanied by their husbands.
“When they reached the border area, the black-clad soldiers, who were reportedly drunk, grabbed and raped her. They beat, kicked and pushed the men. They dragged the women into the forest, but those who had husbands were not assaulted. They only took the unmarried one,” he said, adding that the workers came from different provinces but travelled together.
He added that the victim, originally from Kampong Thom province, is receiving emotional and medical support from doctors and local authorities at the provincial hospital.
Minister of Interior Sar Sokha visited the victim at Battambang Provincial Hospital on Monday morning.
“On the morning of Nov 17, during a mission to Banteay Meanchey province with my wife, I took the time to visit our young sister, a Cambodian migrant worker returning from Thailand, who was araped by Thai soldiers,” Sokha shared, via social media.
Kamrieng district Police Chief Ve Kimchort declined to comment further on the case. - The Phnom Penh Post/ANN
