Ambassador
Conference on Sexual Exploitation: Victims and Perpetrators
PET, Søborg
March 28, 2006
I'm proud to help you open this two-day seminar, hosted by the Serious Organized Crime Agency at the Danish National Police.
I'm particularly pleased to be here after reading, yesterday, the story of Aisha Parveen that appeared on page 9 of the International Herald Tribune.
Aisha was a 14 year old Pashtun from Northwest Pakistan when she was hit on the head while walking to school. She awoke to find herself hundreds of miles away -- kidnapped, imprisoned in a brothel, being sold for sex at the age of 14.
Aisha fought back and refused to sleep with her customers, so the brothel owner beat and tortured her and drugged her into submission.
For six years she was beaten, and drugged, and abused for sex every day. Some think Aisha Parveen doesn't matter. That she is just one more impoverished girl from a remote countryside, in a land we don't care about; that if the sadistic brothel owner goes ahead and kills her that no one will care.
But they would be wrong. Because you care, and hundreds and thousands and millions of us care -- which is why we are here today and tomorrow.
Over the next two days, experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and their Danish colleagues, will provide information and case studies on sexual exploitation, on the affect on victims, and the mind-set of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
Sexual exploitation includes on-line child pornography, rape, and trafficking in women and children, and there are Aisha Parveens all over the world. Fighting all of these crimes is important to the U.S. Government, and it's important to the Danish Government, and to the people the world over who respect human life and who demand human decency. We are pleased the FBI and the Danish police and those who work with victims are able to spend two full days exchanging information.
In order to fight these crimes, we need to keep ahead of the criminals with new and innovative law enforcement techniques. We need to exchange ideas on how to effectively and sensitively interview victims and witnesses. The seminar will devote special attention to interviewing techniques necessary to approach these victims, and the psychological trauma with which each one must deal for the rest of their lives.
Everyone here today is united around a shared goal: learning how to combat sexual exploitation and making sure we do so effectively. International cooperation, such as between the FBI and the PET and with governmental and non-governmental organizations, is essential to moving forward. Wednesday of last week, I had the honor of participating in a lunch meeting at the Department of Justice Headquarters in Washington with the Danish Minister of Justice, Lene Espersen, and the U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. This issue was discussed, and I'm gratified to know just how close our cooperation is on this, and on a range of law enforcement issues. After this conference, I'm certain our cooperation on combating sexual exploitation will be even closer.
Aisha Parveen, incidentally, may be one of the lucky ones. After six years of hell, she escaped her torturing captor, the brothel owner. I say she may be one of the lucky ones, because the brothel owner is fighting in the Pakistani courts to get back his property.
With every ounce of my fiber, I hope he looses. With every ounce of my fiber, I thank you for what you are doing to save women and children like Aisha.