Lanka cracking down on foreign paedophiles

Sri Lankan authorities have deported a suspected Swiss child abuser, and another Swiss national, jailed for two years in prison for ''committing an unnatural offense'' on two local boys, may also be sent back to face a tougher sentence in his own country.

The deportation on February 11 of Viktor Baumann, 53, of Zurich marked a new trend in Sri Lanka's recently launched crackdown on foreign paedophiles, who prey on mostly young boys from impoverished villages along the island's western coastal belt.

Police said Baumann, a foreign investor and a long-time resident of Sri Lanka, was deported to stand trial in Switzerland in connection with several child sexual abuse charges pending against him in that country.

''He is not going free. The Swiss police have told us he will be tried in Switzerland for crimes committed in Sri Lanka and in his own country,'' Deputy Inspector General of the Police, crimes division, Mohamed Nizam, said.

Baumann was arrested last October at his palatial house in the coastal resort town of Negombo, 38 km north of the capital Colombo, while in the company of several young local boys. Police said they also discovered sexually explicit video tapes and formally charged Baumann at a local court hearing on February 26.

Children's rights activists say the decision to deport Baumann was probably the result of extensive negotiations Sri Lankan police had with Swiss law enforcement authorities who visited Sri Lanka earlier this month to track down local victims of an unidentified Swiss paedophile suspect.

''One has to wonder why we would advocate deportation of suspected paedophiles when we have the necessary tools of law to apprehend, prosecute and punish them right here. Wouldn't that be the best deterrent for those committing the crime of sexually abusing children?'' asked the head of a non-governmental organisation.

But Assistant Superintendent of Police Noel Francis, who accompanied Baumann to the airport, said, ''Part of the reason is the expense we incur in prosecuting and jailing foreigners. Why should we spend all that money on these people when their own countries are willing to do the needful.''

''It is government policy that anyone who perpetrates crimes on children should not be tolerated on our shores,'' Nizam said.

According to police, the Swiss were preceded by a team of Dutch investigators who visited Sri Lanka in January, on the trail of a at least eight young boys who were allegedly abused by a Dutch national with investments on the island.

Victims told investigators that the 50-year-old suspect videotaped and photographed them performing sexual acts and identified seaside hotels which were used for the purpose, according to Francis.

He said information gathered in Sri Lanka would be used for the suspects' prosecution in their home countries. ''The fact that countries are cooperating like this shows they are all out to get paedophiles. It should send a strong message to these people,'' he said.

''Here is a case where law enforcement agencies in the abuser's country and the country of the victim have helped each other to bring evidence together,'' said a lawyer who appears on behalf of victims, mostly children from poor families living near tourist resorts. ''It is encouraging to us in that some day, we may be the ones asking these countries for help,'' he said.

In the second case, police said they have asked immigration authorities to consider deporting Armin Heinrich Pfaffhauser, a 58-year-old Swiss national who last week was sentenced to two years in prison for ''committing an unnatural offense'' on two Sri Lankan boys.

Pfaffhauser is the first foreign national to be convicted in Sri Lanka for sexually abusing children. He has pleaded not guilty and appealed against the verdict.

But local children's rights groups are opposed to plans to deport convicted paedophiles, including Pfaffhauser. ''Let him serve his sentence and then be deported,'' said Maureen Seneviratne of Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere (PEACE), a group trying to curb child sex tourism.

Nevertheless, activists are satisfied that at least one man has been convicted in a country where the offense has gone unnoticed for so long. ''We are somewhat satisfied we were able to secure at least one conviction,'' said Kalyananada Tiranagama of Lawyers for Human Rights and Development, an NGO.

''It will serve as a deterrent to others in the future,'' he said. Tiranagama added that Pfaffhauser's sentence would have been tougher had he been tried and convicted under a new law passed in 1995.

The new law calls for a minimum jail term of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years for pimps and their clients. It has pushed the minimum age of consent up to 18 for boys and 16 for girls, making it a crime to have sex with anyone under this age.

Child abuse cases are currently pending in Sri Lankan courts against a German and a Belgian national. Another Swiss national, who jumped bail, is being tried in absentia. But Tiranagama said he was not totally satisfied with the way the police was conducting investigations into cases of paedophilia.

''The police are doing a good job in catching the suspects and prosecuting them. But they should not stop at that. We want the police to go behind pimps and to investigate local connections of paedophiles. We want them to investigate hotels which cater to these people. It is only then that we can eradicate this menace from our country,'' Tiranagama said.

Activists have complained that the laws do not take into account that the victims were mostly school-aged children and the personal and academic suffering they would have to undergo when a case involving them comes to court.

''Pfaffhauser's case took two long years to hear. Imagine the plight of a child who is put through that and the sort of atmosphere he would be exposed to for long periods of time,'' Tiranagama said. The law needs to be more child-friendly and law enforcement officials should be trained in dealing with ignorant and traumatised children, he said.

Sri Lanka's fight against paedophiles did get a good boost last week when President Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered a nationwide crackdown on the sexual abuse of children.

Kumaratunga set up a special child protection authority and asked a presidential panel to draw up an action plan to deal with the sexual abuse of children, including plans to rehabilitate victims and their parents and families.

Kumaratunga wants to make child abuse a non-bailable offense and to create desks at local police stations with specially trained women officers to handle matters of sexual abuse.

UNI