Aboriginal child-abuse measures must stay: report

By ROD McGUIRK,Associated Press Writer AP - Monday, October 13

CANBERRA, Australia - A radical government crackdown on child sexual abuse among Aborigines should continue but in an altered form, an independent report found Monday.


The government-commissioned review of the first year of a crackdown on child abuse and neglect in Australia's Northern Territory has partially vindicated a scheme that critics condemned as discriminatory and an attack on indigenous culture.

The intervention _ which includes increasing police numbers as well as improving health care and housing in remote settlements _ is a drastic response to a report that found Aboriginal child abuse was rampant on Australia's northern frontier.

In June 2007, then-Prime Minister John Howard announced his government would use its constitutional powers over the territory to impose strict measures aimed at protecting children from abuse in Outback Aboriginal settlements.

Alcohol and hard-core pornography were banned from Aboriginal communities and Aborigines were forced to spend a portion of their welfare checks on family essentials like food.

Three members of the review panel, which included two prominent Aborigines, reported Monday to the new government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that some measures _ including the alcohol ban _ should stay.

But controls on how Aborigines spend their welfare money should be lifted except in cases where a court orders them or an Aborigine requests them, the report said.

Aborigines are an impoverished minority who die on average 17 years younger than other Australians.

The so-called federal intervention should continue because "the situation in remote communities and town camps was _ and remains _ sufficiently acute to be described as a national emergency," the report said.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she would consider the report and respond soon.

"The government remains committed to continuing and strengthening" the intervention, she said in a statement.

Costumed Child Abuse Suspect May Enter Plea

A plea hearing is scheduled on Monday for a man accused of abusing children. William Watkins, 54, was known for dressing up as the Grinch and Beetlejuice at a local haunted house. It's unclear where the alleged abuse took place.

Police found the costumed photographs at Watkins home and hoped releasing them would help bring more victims forward.

William Watkins, first popped up on police radar a couple years ago when a then 11-year-old girl accused him of sexual abuse. Then in December 2007, another girl came forward. Watkins was originally charged with first degree child molestation, possession of child pornography, and five counts of first degree statutory sodomy.

Since then, five new young victims have came forward. Watkins was charged with an additional eight new counts including three counts of first degree statutory sodomy, and five counts of first degree child molestation involving the girls under the age of 12.

Police said he dressed as Beetlejuice at a Metro haunted house, had several addresses in Independence and about four years ago moved his salon into his home.

Police said they pulled evidence including a computer containing child porn from the house, but they won't say what it is that makes them think Watkins has been hurting kids since 1982.

Watkins is scheduled to be in court Monday afternoon for a plea hearing

Armed groups and government forces continue to abuse women and children in North Kivu

29 September 2008

Armed groups are still recruiting child soldiers to fight in the ongoing conflict in the province of North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Those child soldiers who attempt to escape have been killed or tortured, sometimes in front of other children, to discourage further escapes. Children who are taken captive by the DRC army on suspicion of being armed group fighters, have faced ill-treatment and torture in military detention.

There is also continuing physical and sexual abuse of women and children in the conflict, according to the new Amnesty International report, North Kivu: No end to the war against women and children.

The report is based on research and eye witness testimony collected by an Amnesty International fact-finding mission in North Kivu in February and March 2008. It says that members of armed groups and government security forces continue to rape and sexually abuse women and girls and, in a smaller number of cases, men and boys. Infant children and elderly women are among the victims, many of whom have suffered gang rape or have been raped more than once.

These abuses are happening despite government and armed group commitments to immediately end these atrocities in a 23 January 2008 "Act of Engagement".

According to the Amnesty International report, of the former child soldiers who had been reunited with their families in North Kivu through a national demobilization programme, as many as half may since have been re-recruited by armed groups.

Beaten to death
One former child soldier told Amnesty International how two youths were beaten to death in front of him and other child recruits "as a lesson to all of us not to try to escape":

"[The boys] were brought out of a pit in the ground and presented to us during a training session. [An armed group senior commander] then gave the order to beat them. Two soldiers and a captain pushed them down into the mud. When they tired of kicking them…they beat them with wooden sticks. The punishment lasted 90 minutes, until they died."

Rape has been committed in public and in front of family members, including children. Some women have been abducted and held as sexual slaves. In many cases, sexual abuse and rape appear to be ethnically motivated and/or aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing communities suspected of supporting enemy groups.

One 16-year-old rape survivor described how she had been abducted by two junior army officers and held captive in an army camp in North Kivu for several days before she was released. In the camp, she was raped nightly by one of the officers.

"The other officers and soldiers in the camp didn't seem to care or be willing to take responsibility", she told Amnesty International. She now suffers flashbacks and persistent headaches.

In its report, Amnesty International issued comprehensive recommendations to the armed groups, DRC government and the international community aimed at stopping human rights abuses. The recommendations include a call on armed groups to immediately release all children associated with their forces, and measures to end to the horror of sexual violence.

Background to the conflict
Despite a peace accord signed in January 2008, armed conflict has persisted in North Kivu. The fighting involves the regular Congolese army (FARDC) and the CNDP armed group under the command of a renegade general Laurent Nkuna, as well as a number of local mayi-mayi militia and the Rwandan FDLR armed group. Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced by renewed fighting in North Kivu since 28 August 2008, adding to more than 1 million people displaced by earlier violence in the region.

Team formed to probe alleged child abuse in Bacolod orphanage

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The Bacolod city government has formed a team to investigate allegations of child abuse at an orphanage here.

Eight children at the Bacolod Boys Home have executed sworn statements about the abuse, said Henry O. Streegan, a former consultant of the orphanage.

He said the children’s affidavits are with acting executive director Fr. Fernando V. Peralta. But Mr. Peralta, for his part, said only one child has executed a sworn statement accusing a city employee of sexual molestation.

"An investigation is underway. It could lead to other complaints of molestation at the Home, but the facts have to be established," Mr. Peralta said.

The orphanage was established in 1960 by Fr. Gratian Murray, one of the founders of La Salle-Bacolod.

He managed the home until he died in December 2000. The home, which is a project of the city, receives P3. 3 million annually from the local government.

Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia said there are moves to professionalize the institution and shield it from controversy so as not to scare off benefactors.

A policy-making board composed of representatives from the government and the private sector is being planned.

Mo'Nique: Big 'Push' Help Tell Of Her Own Incest

By Brennan Williams, BlackVoices.com

Over the past 10 years, Mo'Nique has become one of the foremost funny-woman in Hollywood.

But the plus-sized comedienne's recent revelation of teenage sex abuse is no laughing matter.

In the October issue of 'Essence,' the Baltimore native reveals that she was sexually abused by her brother at the tender age of seven.

"I was molested by my older brother," she tells writer Audrey Edwards during one of her most candid interviews ever. "And even when I confronted him and told my parents, he said I was lying, and nothing was really done."

'The Parkers' star said that her brother molested her four times over the course of four years, using certain tactics such as candy to lure her into the bathroom.

Her parents, she said, were in disbelief, but she didn't hold them accountable "because me and my brother were both their children, and I just don't know the kind of position they felt they were in."

However, the way her parents handled the situation left her bewildered.


"My father was very upset, but it never got mentioned again," she added. "I'll never forget my mother saying, 'If it's true, it will surface again,' and I remember thinking, 'Why would I lie? Why is there even an if in this?' I was angry with them for so long, because I felt as if they should have seen what was happening."

Mo'Nique's alleged sexual abuse came full circle when playing her latest role as an abusive parent in Lee Daniels'; forthcoming film, 'Push.' Based on the seminal 1996 novel of the same name by Sapphire, the story is a graphic account of a young black woman growing up in a cycle of incest and abuse.

"My brother was a monster to me," she commented. "When Lee [Daniels] would say 'Action,' I became my brother."

Her brother, she said went on to serve 15 years in prison for sexually abusing another girl and never made amends for the abuse.

"He still acts like he doesn't know what I'm talking about," she vented in the magazine, which hit newsstands today."So screw hurting your feelings. You need to get your feelings hurt, and you need to get some help."

Mo'Nique, who serves as Guest Editor of the magazine, a special issue dedicated to plus-sized women, admitted to being nervous about telling her painful truth but felt it was her duty.

"It makes me nervous. It's like, Oh, God, what will it do to him when people read this? And then another part of me is like, Goddamn it, it's my obligation to let people know, and to tell women to watch their children."


Mo'Nique is very brave to share her story with the world, and once again parents please listen and pay attention to your kids. The signs of sex abuse are always there.

If you or anyone you know are going through or have gone through this please contact the following organizations online.

rainn.org, nca-online.org,ncvc.org and jfcadvocacy.org.

Oliver O'Grady

Just to let you know our president, president Bush pardoned this bastard.


Oliver O'Grady (born 1946) is a former Irish Roman Catholic priest who has raped, molested and abused many children in California from 1973 onwards. He wrote a letter of confession to parents in 1976 and a copy was given to the Bishop of Stockton at that time.

Early life

Born in Limerick, Ireland, O'Grady was ordained into the priesthood at seminary in Thurles, County Tipperary during the late 1960s. He emigrated to the United States in 1971.^[1] He served as a priest at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi, California from 1971 to 1978. He later served at Church of the Presentation in Stockton, California, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turlock, California, St. Andrew's Parish San Andreas, California, and St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Hughson, California.^[2] He later claimed to having been himself molested by a priest at the age of 10, and that he was involved in sexual abuse in his own family, both as perpetrator and victim.

Crimes

In 1993 he was convicted on four counts of "lewd and lascivious acts" on two minors, the brothers John and James Howard, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Attorney Jeff Anderson said the Howard brothers were repeatedly molested between 1978 and 1991, from age three to 13. Anderson argued that church officials knew that O'Grady had abused children as early as 1976 and 1984, but had done nothing. In 1998 a civil jury ordered the Catholic Diocese of Stockton to pay US$30 million in damages to the brothers. A judge later reduced the amount to $7 million.^[4] O'Grady was paroled from prison in 2000 after serving seven years, and went to live in Ireland after being deported from the United States.

In a 2005 video taped deposition, O'Grady revealed that he had abused as many as 25 children in and around Northern California.^[5] Recently, there have been lawsuits filed accusing O'Grady of abusing children while even in the seminary in Ireland.

Deliver Us From Evil

O'Grady is the subject of the 2006 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Deliver Us From Evil. In the film, O'Grady states, "I want to promise myself this is going to be the most honest confession of my life." He then details how he preyed on children, and claims that church officials knew about his abuses, but protected him by moving him from parish to parish.^[6][7] When questioned whether his bishop knew that he had abused children in 1976 and before, O'Grady confirmed this was true, and despite that he was made pastor of another parish.

When a policeman becomes a predator

Sleepovers took a sinister turn as a close friend betrayed a family's trust, writes Kate Benson.

IT WAS late one Friday afternoon last year when Michelle Adams* took a call on her mobile that would change her life.

Two Australian Federal Police officers wanted to see her urgently. Meet them at 6pm at the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport. No arguments. Bring your husband.

"I felt very, very sick. I had been burning a ballet DVD for my daughter's upcoming dance exams and I thought Big Brother had caught me."

But Adams's life was about to become a dance of a much darker kind. Photos and videos of her 10-year-old daughter, Megan, had been found on international child pornography websites, traded between pedophiles in the United States and discussed in chatrooms.

The nine photos, spread out by the officers, showed Megan, a happy, exuberant year 5 student, washing the car in a bikini, bouncing on a trampoline in her school uniform, and playing at the beach.

The photos had been cropped to focus on her crotch and chest, but Adams recognised the swimming costume and a freckle on Megan's upper thigh.

All of the pictures, plus videos of Megan undressing and showering, had been posted on the internet by one of Adams's most trusted friends, a police officer with a wife and young daughter, who played regularly with Megan.

The general duties constable had been arrested a fortnight earlier and granted bail, Adams was told.

He was charged with three counts of using the internet to transmit child pornography, after police found at his home 4900 photos and 204 videos of children as young as two simulating or performing sexual acts.

A bag of women's clothes, which he used in some of his sexual fantasies, was found in his locker at the police station, the court heard.

The child protection unit at the Sydney Children's Hospital, at Randwick, where Adams and her family were counselled, sees more than 760 children a year, some sexually abused, others neglected, beaten or poisoned.

Only two cases have involved internet pornography, but staff fear this number will rise.

"People have to be vigilant

about the photos they post on sites like MySpace and Facebook because the reality is that offenders will often use innocent photos and manipulate them in ways to get sexual gratification," says a social worker, Bernadette Walsh.

Many parents were also unaware that perpetrators were often family members or friends, well known to the child, she said.

"We caution children about stranger danger all the time and yet the vast majority of offenders are people within the family or known to the family and we don't give children the skills to talk about that."

The co-head of the child protection unit at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, Robyn Lamb, said staff had seen a surge in the number of children who were victims of internet pornography, including a recent case where a mother posted sexualised photos of her children on American child porn sites.

"We get quite a few cases where children have been coerced in chatrooms by people who they thought were of a similar age. These [perpetrators] are very clever - they know how to pick the vulnerable ones and gain their trust."

She said her unit had about 1200 referrals a year, and about half were victims of sexual abuse.

In the Adams case, the police officer had been trading explicit images of prepubescent girls for years, but had recently told an undercover FBI agent in a chatroom he had been planning to drug and rape Megan, but lost his nerve at the last moment. He had asked the agent if the act would have given him "a buzz".

"I remember driving home and feeling very numb. [My husband] David and I did not speak a word to each other," Adams says.

"I had seen [the officer] in that fortnight after he was arrested. We'd had coffee and he'd been quiet but he didn't mention anything was wrong. His wife had even been asking to have Megan for a play and a sleepover.

"I used to think what a great husband and father he was. Any time he came to dinner at our place he always made a sweet, and he used to do the cleaning and his own ironing and look after [his daughter] Charlotte all the time, and certainly do some fun things with her. They always invited Megan," Adams says.

"There were times when Megan didn't want to go and play with her and I'd say, 'Don't be mean. She's an only child and she's just looking for a good friend.' "

Adams's eyes fill with tears as she recalls this. "My head is spinning when I think about that."

She now knows that the officer was grooming Megan, buying her gifts and treats, and ingratiating himself with Adams, by regularly asking her out for coffee and involving himself in her family's activities.

The bubbly primary school student has never spoken of being molested by him, and seems oblivious to the sexual agenda of his photo collection, but Adams is still gripped with fear that she may have been assaulted without her knowledge.

"We were very nervous about what may have been done to her but I didn't want to frighten her by asking. She knew nothing about sex and I was worried that he may have told her he had a gun and he'd use it on her or us if she told anyone. It could have terrified her if I probed too much," Adams says.

Megan was never medically assessed for sexual assault because the examination must be done within 72 hours of the encounter and the results are notoriously unreliable, but Department of Community Services officers assured Adams her daughter did not exhibit any behavioural signs indicative of molestation, such as repeatedly touching her genitals or acting in a flirtatious manner.

"Megan told me that he gave her a Panadol once for no reason. I think he was testing the waters. He had some extraordinarily strong painkillers at his house and I think he was seeing if Megan could trust him enough to take a pill from him, and if she could swallow a pill," Adams says.

"I did take one last phone call from his wife. I was feeling very angry so I was not a very nice person towards her. [I asked her if she had] any idea what he was up to and her answer was no but that about five years earlier she had caught him with a disc of pornography and he promised her he would never do it again."

The police officer was sentenced to three years and three months in jail, to be served in protection at Grafton. He may be out on parole in August 2010, but Adams's face crumbles when she contemplates his release.

"I don't know what we'll do. Part of me wants to write a letter to all his neighbours telling them what he's done but that's because I'm still angry. Really, I think my goal now is to focus on my family. We need to look after ourselves and heal. The person I feel most sorry for is Charlotte. She is a lovely kid, a really nice little girl, and I feel for her because she's just an innocent person in a very mixed-up family."

* Names have been changed.

Doctor Charged With Sexual Abuse

A Tulsa doctor has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor child.

Dr. Kirk Smith was arrested in July on a complaint of sexually abusing a 6-year old girl at his home in Bixby.

A police affidavit says the girl told her 10-year-old brother that Dr. Smith was doing "bad things" to her. And according to that report, it happened more than once.

Smith has been suspended from SouthCrest Hospital in Tulsa where he was working in family medicine and obstetrics.

Bronx man indicted in sexual abuse against child

A Bronx man has been indicted in Sullivan County on charges he sexually abused a child for months. Hector Cerna, 19, faces charges of first-degree sexual conduct against a child and first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. The victim was under the age of 11 and the abuse started around November 2006 and continued until March 2007, court papers said.

Ex-priest in Australia faces child sex charges

The Associated Press

Sat, Sep 6, 2008 (12:18 a.m.)

A former Roman Catholic priest already facing dozens of charges related to allegations of sexual abuse at an exclusive Australian boarding school has been charged with an additional 60 child sex offenses, police said Wednesday.

Police also arrested two other men Wednesday in connection with the investigation into alleged abuse in the 1980s at two religious schools.

The new charges and arrests come after Pope Benedict XVI visited Australia in July and publicly condemned sexual predators in the church, apologizing to their victims.

The 65-year-old ex-priest, identified by his attorney as Brian Spillane of Sydney, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with 60 counts relating to alleged sexual assaults against eight people, New South Wales state police said.

He was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15, a police spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity. The spokeswoman declined to provide any additional information, including details of the allegations or the specific charges.

Spillane was originally charged in May with 33 child sex offenses against five people as a result of a police investigation into allegations of abuse in the 1980s at St. Stanislaus in the city of Bathurst, 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Sydney. Spillane worked at the school on and off between the 1970s and early 1990s.

Police on Wednesday also arrested a 66-year-old Catholic brother in connection with their probe into St. Stanislaus and a 63-year-old former teacher of another religious school in Bathurst that is also under investigation.

The Catholic brother was arrested in Sydney and charged with 28 sexual offenses dating back to the 1970s and '80s. He was released on bail and ordered to appear in court Sept. 15. Police did not name the man or say whether he taught at St. Stanislaus. Many members of Catholic orders teach in religious schools.

The other suspect arrested Wednesday, a former teacher who lives on Russell Island in Queensland state, was charged with three counts of indecent assault relating to alleged offenses at the Anglican All Saints College in Bathurst in 1973. He was released on bail and ordered to appear in court Nov. 17.

Police did not release either man's name or details about the allegations against them.

Police Superintendent Michael Goodwin said that since the original allegations became public, additional people have come forward claiming to have been abused at the schools.

"Police are currently working through a significant amount of information in relation to these sexual assault matters most of which date back to the 1970s and 80s," Goodwin said in a statement.

"As a result of information from the public, (the police probe) has been expanded to investigate any instances of sexual abuse relating to any former student of any school in the Bathurst area," he said. "Inquiries are continuing, and I cannot rule out further arrests at this stage."

Spillane's lawyer, Greg Walsh, said Wednesday that his client maintained his innocence and said the case had been "highly contaminated," in part because the accusers' complaints were based on repressed memories.

"They've (the memories) been concocted," Walsh said. "There's no scientific basis on recovered memories."

Walsh declined to elaborate or say whether police or psychologists worked with the accusers to draw out the memories of alleged abuse.

"I can't go into details," he said, adding only that there were "a number of bizarre aspects" to the case.

John Edwards, principal of St. Stanislaus, said the school first learned of the allegations against the former priest five or six years ago, after a link to a Web site containing graphic descriptions of sex acts that had allegedly taken place at the school was sent to several staff members. Officials at the school forwarded the information to police, Edwards said.

"We never heard anything further of it," Edwards said.

On July 3, the school was served with a search warrant listing the names of three former staff members, including Spillane, Edwards said. But police would not tell Edwards whether the other two former staff members were also accused of molesting students, or whether they were simply potential witnesses.

Disbelief

How can we as americans the land of the free, keep allowing this tragedy to happen. For a country who is supposed to be fighting for justice for all people young and old we sure do seem to be lacking in this departing as far as sex crimes against children go. How can a child molester or rapist only serve 5 years on a 10year sentence for example, or how do they not serve anytime for 40 year sentence. Somebody just tell me why does this happen in this country. At this rate victims will continue to be silent, especially if they feel that there is no justice.(Don't mind me I'm just venting)

AFGHANISTAN: Little support for victims of child sexual abuse

On 19 September 2007 seven young men gang-raped and tortured a 13-year-old girl in the northern province of Balkh

KABUL - Ten-year-old Sweeta still remembers the most painful moments of her life when a bulky 35-year-old man raped her in his office in the town of Sheberghan, Jowzjan Province, in northern Afghanistan.

"The three men in the car grabbed her and drove to an army barracks where the commander raped her in his office. She [Sweeta] was threatened that if she told anyone about the incident they would kill her parents."

At around 10am on 31 January 2008 a vehicle with the markings and number plate of the Afghan National Army (ANA) stopped near a water-point where Sweeta was filling her buckets, according to the Afghanistan Human Right Organisation (AHRO).

“The three men in the car grabbed her and drove to an army barracks where the commander raped her in his office,” said Lal Gul Lal, chairman of AHRO, who has provided legal support to the victim’s family.

The child was semi-conscious when the rapist dropped her home with some gifts, lying to her elder sister that she was hit by a car and was experiencing abdominal bleeding.

“She [Sweeta] was threatened that if she told anyone about the incident they would kill her parents,” Lal told IRIN in Kabul.

But it soon became clear that the girl had been raped, and this was later confirmed by local doctors.

For a whole week after the incident Sweeta’s father knocked on various government doors, trying to obtain justice, but only received verbal sympathy.

The situation changed when he approached AHRO and local and national media got wind of the story. Despite strong opposition from some influential figures, the rapist was arrested and brought to court in Kabul.

“Many cases are unreported”

Sweeta’s is not an isolated case: Some children are exploited for sexual purposes but their misery is rarely talked about in public.

“Many cases are unreported,” said Hangama Anwary, a commissioner for the rights of children with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

At least 31 cases of child sexual abuse were registered by the AIHRC in 2007. So far this year only four cases have been reported, though it is estimated by the AIHRC and other human rights organisations, that there are hundreds of cases every year.

“Some parents think by reporting sex offences against their children they will only bring dishonour on their families,” Anwary said.

On 19 September 2007 seven young men gang-raped and tortured a 13-year-old girl in the northern province of Balkh, according to the two rights watchdogs, the AHRO and the AIHRC.

“A government official released all the accused rapists two days after they were apprehended, saying there was a lack of evidence,” said Lal of AHRO.

“The offenders are still at large and the victim is roaming around various government departments with her petition for justice,” he added.

According to Lal, many of those involved in sex offences are able to escape justice due to the weak rule of law and corruption among judges and government officials, and/or have the support of powerful militia leaders.

Link with human trafficking

However, some measures to tackle sexual offences against children have been taken: On 6 June a court in Takhar Province reportedly sentenced to death a man accused of raping and strangling to death a seven-year-old girl.

In early May, judges in Kandahar Province gave the death penalty to a man who reportedly raped and buried a six-year-old girl.

“Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude,” found the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report of the US Department of State.

The report said Afghan children were trafficked internally and to regional countries for “commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage to settle debts or disputes, forced begging, debt bondage [and] service as child soldiers”.

The AIHRC also said there were strong linkages between human trafficking and child sexual abuse. However, a major obstacle in tackling child trafficking is the lack of specific legal and judicial tools.

“Human trafficking has not been defined in our legal system so far,” the AIHRC’s Hangama Anawary told IRIN. “We also do not have legal clarity on issues related to child sexual abuse.”

Rights watchdogs have repeatedly called on the Afghan government to immediately enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law and increase law enforcement efforts against human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children.

No victim support

Although the man who raped Sweeta in Sheberghan has been sentenced to 15 years by a court in Kabul, her post-trauma suffering has not diminished - neither the government nor the rapist have paid any financial compensation to ease the victim family’s difficulties, and Sweeta has not received any rehabilitative and/or mental support to help her return to a normal life.

“The government does not run a formal victim support fund to assist victims like Sweeta,” Lal Gul Lal said.

Afghanistan’s legal system envisions individual compensatory mechanisms in which only offenders - not the government - must pay financial compensation to victims.