Tourism officials quit ministry to run adoption business
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Written by Stephen O'Connell and Chea Sotheacheath
THE Asian Orphanage Association (AOA), a Phnom Penh adoption center opened last year by suspected baby-traffickers, and now run by two former Tourism Ministry officials, is providing babies for foreign adoptions.
The AOA, located in Kok Prich, a village near Pochentong Airport, started operations last December. According to villagers living near AOA, it was started by Tith Von, the manager of another adoption center, Women and Orphan Vocational Association (WOVA), in partnership with a taxi driver, Soeng Mon.
Investigations by a human rights NGO and the Post have linked Von directly with buying Cambodian babies to supply American adoption agencies (Post. May 26, 2000). And the 39-year-old taxi driver, Mon, was detained by police on suspicion of baby trafficking on August 23, 1999.
THE Asian Orphanage Association (AOA), a Phnom Penh adoption center opened last year by suspected baby-traffickers, and now run by two former Tourism Ministry officials, is providing babies for foreign adoptions.
The AOA, located in Kok Prich, a village near Pochentong Airport, started operations last December. According to villagers living near AOA, it was started by Tith Von, the manager of another adoption center, Women and Orphan Vocational Association (WOVA), in partnership with a taxi driver, Soeng Mon.
Investigations by a human rights NGO and the Post have linked Von directly with buying Cambodian babies to supply American adoption agencies (Post. May 26, 2000). And the 39-year-old taxi driver, Mon, was detained by police on suspicion of baby trafficking on August 23, 1999.
[excerpt from an article]
2000 Jun 9