Morm Nheb still remembers how her burnt flesh smelt when her ex-husband doused her face with acid, scarring her for life.
“It’s not a good smell,” said the mother-of-two, whose life has been a struggle ever since the day her ex-husband vented his anger over their divorce.
“There’s no going back after I was splashed with acid, and I am living like a dead body or a living ghost,” she said.
Photo: AFP
She is one of a growing number of acid burn victims in Cambodia, where the caustic liquid is easily and cheaply available — and attackers rarely brought to justice.
“We have difficulty in trying to get people to press charges because they are sometimes very fearful of the perpetrator,” said Chhun Sophea, a program manager at the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC).
In other cases, such as Nheb’s, the attackers go on the run and are never heard from again.
Since CASC opened its doors in 2006, it has helped around 300 people like Nheb by offering free medical and legal aid, counseling and skills training.
While there are no official statistics and many cases go unreported, Sophea said acid crimes are on the rise.
From January to last month, CASC recorded 18 attacks, in which 34 people were injured.
Sophea said that was “definitely an increase on last year,” when 33 people were treated overall, including some injured in accidents.
The Cambodian government has acknowledged the problem and is now in the process of drafting a law that would regulate acid sales and impose harsher sentences on attackers.
Drafting committee deputy chairman Ouk Kimlek said that convicted perpetrators could face between five years and life in prison under the new law, expected to be approved by the end of the year.
“Acid is a horrible thing,” he said. “We are looking to put those attackers in jail for what they have done to the victims, so we can curtail more acid crimes.”
Acid violence is a serious problem in some other Asian countries as well.
Bangladesh has seen 86 cases with 111 injuries in the first nine months of the year, according to the London-based Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), an NGO campaigning to make acid attacks a criminal offence in the country.
In Pakistan, women’s rights group the Aurat Foundation recorded 20 cases of acid throwing in the first half of this year.
The vast majority of victims in those countries are women, but in Cambodia men are just as likely to be a target.
“A lot of people think acid crimes are related to love triangle issues,” Sophea said.
However, that is not always the case, she said, and the motives for such attacks range from jealousy to anger and revenge.
“It’s not focused on the women here. Men have their anger against men also and women get really upset with husbands too. The anger and resentment builds up over time and they don’t have any way of letting it out,” she said.
Som Bunnarith, 39, a long-term resident at CASC, is one of these male victims.
He was burnt by his wife five years ago when they were arguing over his many late nights out. The attack left him blind.
“I cry. I am very sorry about my eyes,” the former salesman said.
He says he has forgiven his wife. They both work at CASC now, and he does not want to see her jailed.
Nheb, on the other hand, still wants justice.
She was unable to get her factory job back after the attack, and feels ostracized.
“When people look at you, whether it’s pity or just a curious look, it’s the most horrific thing,” she said. “When they see acid victims, they say, ‘If you take someone’s husband, here is the result.’ That infuriates me.”
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done