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USA v. DANIEL STEPHEN JOHNSON

6:14-CR-00482-MC

REPORT OF CULTURAL EXPERT

TRUDE JACOBSEN, PHD

Qualifications

I am a tenured professor in the Department of History and the Center for Southeast Asian

Studies at Northern Illinois University, one of seven Department of Education Title VI-funded

Centers for Southeast Asian Studies in the United States. My experience of Cambodian culture

extends back to 1988. I worked for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia

(UNTAC) in the Human Rights Component between 1992 and 1994. I speak Khmer, the

official language of Cambodia, to a near native proficiency. I have numerous publications,

including two peer-reviewed monographs, on aspects of Cambodian society, religion, and

politics. Pending unforeseen circumstances, I spend at least one week of every year in

Cambodia for research, teaching, supervising students with Cambodia-specific topics,

and/or attending academic conferences.

Country profile

Cambodia continues to lag behind most of Southeast Asia in terms of development, largely

due to the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-1979 and the five years of civil war that

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preceded it. An estimated 2.53 million people – roughly a quarter of the pre-1975 population

– died during the regime, and countless others fled to Thailand and Vietnam, where they

were interned in refugee camps before being resettled in western countries including the

United States, or repatriated to Cambodia following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.

Demography is skewed; roughly half of the population is aged 25 or less. Poverty is

widespread, with GDP at $3,700. Nearly 80 per cent of the population of 15.7 million lives in

rural areas (World Bank 2014); of these, less than 10 per cent have access to clean drinking

water. The Human Development Index ranks Cambodia #134 out of 188 countries. Men in

rural areas often migrate to provincial capitals during the dry season in order to take on

temporary jobs as “moto-dup” or tuk-tuk drivers, or menial labour in construction. Lack of

educational institutions in rural areas results in children being sent to live with distant

relatives in larger towns and the capital city Phnom Penh in order to attend school.

Since 1993 half of Cambodia’s budget has been underwritten by foreign aid (Hayman

2007, p. 7). An absence of state resources has resulted in what Mark Schuller (2012) has

called the “NGO-ization” of Cambodian society, as civil society rushes to provide services that

the government cannot, or will not. The state welcomes such initiatives as the burden for

providing healthcare, educational opportunities, and child welfare is shifted to private

organizations, including foreign-run clinics, hospitals, schools, and orphanages. Sopheal Ear

echoes this argument, blaming donor insistence on the appearance of “free and fair elections”

and a stated adherence to upholding human rights rather than actually implementing

accountability and transparency throughout the public sector (Ear 2013).

“Orphanages” in Cambodia are prolific; a lack of state regulatory practices means that

anyone can establish a center with no previous experience running a residential facility for

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children, no background checks, and no state oversight. Moreover, the cultural practice of

sending children to live with distant relatives in order to realize educational opportunities

transfers neatly to the western concept of an orphanage – in 2015, the NGO Friends

International surmised that “three quarters of the children filling these hundreds of

institutions were not orphans” (Friends International 2015). Lindsay Stark, an associate

professor at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, wrote that in

Cambodia “more and more parents see institutional care as the most direct route to social

mobility” (Stark 2016). Although international standards have tightened, making it more

difficult for adoptions of children who are not orphaned (Fields-Meyer et al. 2004), the lack

of systematic documentations for births or deaths in Cambodia means that any child could

be identified both administratively and culturally as an orphan once abandoned by one or

both parents. Mauritz Peletz, who has worked in Cambodia for more than three decades with

Doctors Without Borders and who now runs his own scholarship program for rural

Cambodian children, says that it would be more appropriate to refer to most “orphanages”

as “dormitories”, “informal foster care”, or “children’s centers” (pers. comm., 2018).

Corruption and rule of law

Cambodia ranks amongst one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Corruption goes all

the way to the top of the political tree; in 2012, Moek Dara, the head of the National Authority

for Combating Drugs, was himself found guilty of drug trafficking (NYT 2012). The Prime

Minister, Hun Sen, has been in power for most of the last three decades. He and his cronies

are alleged to run several illegal enterprises using public assets to profit privately, including

illegal logging (David 2013, p. 824). The same group of senior-level politicians has been

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accused of embezzling donor funds earmarked for specific purposes such as anti-corruption

initiatives by the World Bank (Moore 2006, p. 7; Ear 2007, p. 85). This endemic corruption

held up implementation of the Law on Anti-Corruption, finally promulgated in 2010 (David

2013, p. 834). Transparency International found that Cambodia showed “persistently high

levels of grand corruption, petty corruption and political corruption in Cambodia” and that

out of 177 countries, Cambodia was ranked 160th (TI 2014, 17).

Corruption filters down to every level of the state bureaucracy (Hayman 2007, p. 8).

Students, from elementary school through professional degrees, are expected to give “gifts”

to their teachers and professors in exchange for being allowed into class or being given the

answers to exams (David 2013, p. 815). According to Curley, low rates of “pay and lack of

training, education, and resources are common themes when analyzing the capacity of the

government bureaucracy in Cambodia” (2014, p. 310). Cotter illustrates this in discussing

the case of Terry Smith, arrested in Cambodia in 2006 on charges of sex with two underage

girls; the court director released him from pre-trial detention in return for a $20,000

“payment” so that he could seek medical attention for “headaches”. He remained at large

until he turned up at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh looking to renew his expired passport

(Cotter 2009, p. 504).

Corruption extends to the General Commissariat of National Police. This group of

some 64,000 officers is overseen by the Ministry of Interior and is responsible for security,

public order, transport, border control, administration, and justice. Unfortunately,

Transparency International has found the GCNP “very weak” or “weak” in implementing its

mandate (TI 2014, 84-85). It is common knowledge that the police will turn their attention

to the highest bidder in a dispute (Cotter 2009, p. 496). This is partly because of the system

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of khsae, or patronage, in which “public servants earn their living by collecting bribes for

basic services and then passing portions to their superiors to ensure job security” (David

2013, p. 816; see also Jacobsen and Stuart-Fox 2013). Police are therefore above the law

themselves. In March 2016 a police official was able to avoid being prosecuted for smuggling

rosewood into Thailand because of his position (Cambodia Daily, March 9th, 2016). This is

despite the funneling of donor monies to anti-corruption initiatives. In 2009, a study showed

that although crime had reduced somewhat over the past decade, confidence in the police

had not improved (Broadhurst and Bouhours 2009). Transparency International surmised

in 2014 that the “majority of police officers’ income is believed to not come from official

salaries but rather from illicit sources of revenue such as bribe-taking” (TI 2014, 87). Entry

into the police also depends upon the ability to “buy” a place:

The recruitment for law enforcement agencies is reportedly based on political

patronage and loyalty….a police officer in the Kampot provincial Police Department

explained that the requirements to join the police force are threefold: 1) hold a high

school diploma; 2) have connections with high ranking officers; and, 3) have between

2,500-3000 US dollars to buy a position at the commune or district level (TI 2014,

88).

The majority of police officers, therefore, are not there due to a vocational calling or the will

to protect.

Lawyers routinely ask clients for large lump sums of cash in order to ensure an

equitable hearing from a judge or magistrate – the expectation is that the other side has

already staked such a sum (GAN Integrity 2017). It is therefore unsurprising that Gary and

Donna Johnson were frequently solicited by people in Phnom Penh for funds. This money

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ensured that the judges concerned would entertain evidence that exonerated or mitigated

the crimes of which he was accused and make sure that while incarcerated Johnson could

access food, a mosquito net, and toiletries, which are not provided by prison officials

regularly. In the appeal, Johnson’s attorney paid a sum of money to the judge hearing the

case only to ensure a fair hearing. Currently, Australian James Ricketson, arrested on June

2017 for flying a camera drone over a political rally in order to capture footage for a

documentary film, has undergone repeated unexplained delays to his trial. In the first

instance, he was arrested for being in Cambodia illegally. Then, upon production of his

correct visa, he was charged with “collecting information prejudicial to national security”.

A deputy police chief stated that

“First we found out his crime that he doesn’t have legal documents and after further

investigation, he was found with a different crime. It is normal.” (Guardian 2017).

On January 29, 2018, Supreme Court Judge Soeng Panhavuth stated that rather than be

granted bail, a judge “is still investigating this case so the continuation of detention is

necessary”. Earlier, another court official stated that bail was being denied as Ricketson

had not arrived in time for the court session – a matter beyond his control as he was being

transported from Prey Sar prison via police van and heavily guarded. Local opinion,

however, believes that Ricketson has not paid the sum asked by the judge to grant bail, and

the Cambodia Daily newspaper opined that Ricketson “has little chance of getting a fair trial

in the country’s politically rigged, chaotic and corrupt courts”. i

Law enforcement officials often lack the requisite skills for handling sensitive

witnesses or the technology for sophisticated analysis of evidence. According to Curley, in

Cambodia expertise “in the collection and analysis of evidence, particularly digital file, and

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child witness statements, and their presentation in court, are identified as areas requiring

development” (2014, 288). Female police officers make up less than five per cent of the total

police force, which is posited as an explanation for why crimes against women and children

are not pursued (TI 2014, 86-87). In a well-known case in which an Australian citizen was

accused of child prostitution, the Cambodian government formally asked that Australian

Federal Police officers to travel to Cambodia in order to carry out interviews and assist with

recovery of digital information, specifically “specialist support…in the areas of IT analysis

and child witness testimony” (Curley 2014, 307). Children require particularly sensitive

handling; very young children might not know the difference between “telling a lie” and

“making up a story” for fun, and have no concept of the consequences for not telling the truth.

Children also are less aware of their rights, have a greater or exaggerated fear of retaliation

from those against whom they are being asked to give testimony, and require simpler

constructions of questions than adults. Clear guidelines for correct interview protocol

involving children are laid out in. Police are often not trained in any interview techniques

other than observing senior officers and assisting until they are deemed “experienced”

enough to lead interrogations themselves (an arbitrary assessment that varies from police

station to police station) (Leonhardt, unpublished field notes, 2017). ii

In their 2016 study on perceptions of trust between ordinary Cambodians and police,

Schneiders and Weissman found that “more than half (57.1%)” of their 798 informants, all

drawn from vulnerable groups in Cambodian society (the poor, members of the LGBTQ

community, sex workers, and drug users), had been arrested in the past six months and

released within 48 hours; of these 10% “exchanged money in return for immediate

release…whereas 7.6% were forced to pay money to avoid arrest or harassment” (2017, 39).

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Peng Hor et al. found that guidelines for correct treatment of defendants charged with crimes

were rarely followed, or subject to extremes in interpretation and application (2016). It is

therefore not surprising to find in the transcripts and video of interviews of child witnesses,

as in this case, that police interviewers spoke to the children as adults in most cases, did not

use the appropriate models of establishing understanding of truth versus untruth. Katherine

Brickell found that in dealing with victims of domestic violence, another vulnerable group,

police did not use appropriate interviewing techniques, including outlining safeguards for

truthful testimony and protection from perpetrators; in fact, victims where often bullied by

police into dropping charges, or perpetrators released after simple denials and promises to

avoid violence in the future (Brickell 2017). These views are consistent with the most recent

US Department of State findings that although the Cambodian constitution

provides for an independent judiciary…the government general did not respect

judicial independence….There was widespread corruption among judges,

prosecutors, and court officials….At times the outcome of trials appeared

predetermined…..Authorities sometimes coerced an accused person’s statements

through beatings or threats, and police often forced illiterate defendants to sign

written confessions without informing them of the contents (US Dept of State 2017).

In cases where an external police force is not available for assistance, Cambodian

police officers who attempt to apply the law are often unable to do so because of lack of

resources. Transparency International reported that there

have been cases where national police officers have had an insufficient budget to

conduct investigations, leading to a number of undesirable outcomes: asking

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complainants to finance the investigation; to paying for the investigations from their

own pocket; to not conducting the investigation at all (TI 2014, 86).

On the other hand, there have been a number of cases in which police without resources seek

to bring a swift end to matters regardless of the law. Police regularly use duress to coerce

“confessions” from suspects and statements from witnesses (TI 2014, p. 60). A joint training

exercise between the United States and Cambodia ended in secrecy when members of the

Cambodian National Police Commissariat being trained by a US law enforcement agency in

2009 carried out human rights abuses during the course of their training, and while the US

agents were present (Gillison 2016). There is also a huge disparity between official

government policies and their implementation by the police. For example, although 100% of

police in the Schneiders and Weissman research “reported supporting the provision of HIV

prevention and harm reduction” as mandated by the government, “the majority (94.0%)

thought arrest and detention an appropriate solution for reducing HIV transmission and

drug use”, and believed that “drug use in private spaces, selling sex, and carrying needles and

syringes were valid reasons for arrest” ((2017, 41). Many of their informants reported

frequently relocating their homes and places of work due to fear of the police.

In 2011 a US citizen, Kenneth Wilcox, living in Phnom Penh since 2004, was accused

of raping his (female) domestic worker and arrested by police. The motive appeared to be

his refusal to loan another foreign man a large sum of money to cover his gambling debts.

His Cambodian (male) partner attempted to have him released on the basis that Wilcox was

a well-known member of the LGBTQ community. The police then altered the charges to

attempted seduction of an unidentified minor male (not his partner) and increased the “bail”

money to $25,000 from $10,000. As Wilcox was a US citizen, the Embassy became involved,

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and consequently the FBI. Although Wilcox was repatriated to the US due to an outstanding

warrant for a DUI that he had thought resolved in the early 2000s, and for which he was

subsequently released, the FBI investigation turned up no evidence and the case was marked

unfounded (Cambodia Daily, November 25th 2010; Wilcox, pers. comm., September 13th,

2017). A well-known British photographer, Martin Flitman, who had lived in Cambodia from

the mid-1990s, was forced to take his biological daughter, then six years old, and flee to the

United Kingdom in 2006 when the girl’s mother and his long-term Cambodian partner was

overheard discussing with a police officer how much they could extort from Flitman if he

was arrested on charges of abusing his daughter (Flitman, pers. comm., 2007). It is significant

that these two men did not pay any financial incentive to the police. On the other hand, FBI

intelligence reports that Lt. Col. Lao Lin, a member of the Human Trafficking Unit, was lead

investigator in six cases involving British and American sex offenders who disappeared on

the eve of arrest, and who all received phone calls asking for bribes of between $3,000 and

$5,000 in order for the case “to go away” (FBI 2017). The same source stated that Lao was

not the only high-ranking officer in the unit to be involved in such activities.

Cultural practices

Orphans as victims

A phenomenon known to scholars as the “charitable industrial complex” (Mahdavi 2014) or

“rescue industry” (Agustin 2007) has emerged in which campaigns to raise awareness and

eradicate harmful practices use stereotypes of “victims” in order to reach their target

audience (see for example O’Brien 2013, Cole 2006, Vance 2012). These stereotypes are

useful because target audiences – potential donors of money, volunteers of time, or policy

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makers – have a pre-existing idea of a “victim” of trafficking and exploitation; usually poor,

rural, lacking in education, lacking sufficient intelligence to avoid being tricked or deceived,

and unable to exercise agency against a more intelligent, cunning exploiter. These tropes

affirm what people in the West believe to be true of less developed countries. Thus, until

recently, Western tourists would be invited to visit an “orphanage” as part of their

experience in Cambodia. Once there, they would be gently encouraged to make donations of

cash, or agree to “sponsor” a child for school and other fees.

The Tuk tuk drivers outside our guesthouse were the first to spring for our business. They

were eager. Most of them receive commissions from orphanages that bring tourists to the

centers, and some get them by stopping at specific markets on the way so that you can

buy school supplies for the kids. The most entrepreneurial organize daily orphanage

tours. A tuk tuk driver named Manny told us he could take us to five centers in a single

afternoon for $20 – lunch included! (Hartley and Walker 2013).

Unfortunately, in order for their cause to be identified as “genuine”, or to stand out

against the myriad of disasters and exploitative situations going on at any given time in the

world, some people – who may be well-intentioned – have begun exaggerating or downright

fabricating their experience. The most famous case of this occurrence in Cambodia is Somaly

Mam, whose foundation against sex trafficking was forced to close when it came to light that

girls in her campaigns, including a documentary, had auditioned for their parts and were told

what to say. Mam’s own story of being an orphan who had been repeatedly raped and

trafficked from a young age was shown to be false (Hoefinger 2016). One of the reasons

people are willing to engage in exaggeration or fabrication is the promise of a visa to a

country less poverty-stricken than Cambodia.

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Escaping poverty – by any means necessary

Since the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), there is a widespread cultural belief

amongst Cambodians that the best investment possible is dual citizenship that permits them

a passport. The reasons for this belief are manifold. First, should civil war break out again,

passport holders will be able to exit the country quickly and take refuge elsewhere. Second,

educational and employment opportunities are believed to be abundant in more

industrialized countries such as the United States, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,

South Korea, and Japan. Third, lack of confidence in the banking system in Cambodia, coupled

with the history of the eradication of property under the Khmer Rouge and the more recent

government seizing of assets with impunity, encourages those with any significant financial

assets to invest them offshore (Springer 2015).

While this trend toward acquiring citizenship is more typically seen in the trend of

Cambodian women seeking out relationships with much older men visiting Cambodia and

hoping that they will bring them to their countries of origin as fiancées or wives (Hoefinger

2014, Jacobsen 2017), it is increasingly being seen in labor migrants renewing or overstaying

their work visas (Wolf 1996, Mills 2002) in the hope of meeting residency criteria. In most

countries, those who experience abuse – either domestic violence or employer-related – and

bring charges are allowed a special visa in order to remain in the country to testify. This can

then be converted into residency, and, ultimately, citizenship. With the introduction of the S-

5 visa classification in the United States in 1994, it was only a matter of time before this visa

classification was viewed as a new mechanism for mobility. The S-5 visa classification allows

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holders to adjust their status to legal permanent residency (“green card”) under Section

245(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and to include their spouses, children, and

parents in their application (US Dept of State 2016). Similarly, the U visa, introduced in 2009,

allows victims of or witnesses to crimes committed by US citizens abroad to travel to the

United States in order to provide testimony. Michael Kagan (2015) has noted the increase in

the number of U visas amongst undocumented noncitizens who claim to be victims of or

witnesses to crimes in the United States and that this has led to cross-examinations on

witnesses and victims who “desire to obtain immigration benefits in exchange for

testimony”. In 2011, the Daily Mail published a story in which

18,000 illegal immigrants, plus 14,000 of their relatives” had benefitted from the U

visa and that “word is spreading fast in come communities” that “if you are a victim

of a crime and you cooperate, or are ‘helpful’ with authorities, then you stand a good

chance of getting a U visa (Daily Mail 2011).

Domestic arrangements

A number of American church mission team members made several statements as to

behaviour exhibited by Daniel Johnson and boys at the orphanage that they thought were

improper, yet actually are completely usual in Cambodian culture. David Rawe stated that he

observed Johnson sleeping in a bed with 10-year-old Baptist (FBI 31F-PD-3068949). Suzy

Roberts recalled that members of the mission team and children from the orphanage when

to Kampot, where everyone slept on the floor of the church, kids and adults alike. Johnson

shared his mosquito net with two boys from the orphanage, Roxa and Luka. She later “felt

weird about the situation”.

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Cambodian families are usually extended rather than the Western nuclear model,

meaning that several generations lives together under one roof. This means that siblings,

parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles often sleep in one room, sharing mosquito

nets. A mother may share her net with her four children while her husband sleeps

downstairs with his brothers or cousins. Four children may share a bed while their parents

and infant sibling have another bed. A mother may share her mat with HER mother, her

sister, and young children. In other words, beds are not synonymous with sexual activity.

David Foord made a statement to the FBI on August 1, 2014 that when visiting the

orphanage in October 2012 he observed Johnson “inside his mosquito net on the church

sanctuary floor, lying on his stomach with his shirt off getting his back rubbed by a boy from

the orphanage.... Foord wasn’t sure if DANIEL saw him but indicated that DANIEL also wasn’t

trying to hide”. Janice Roberts also testified that when she visited the orphanage in 2013, she

overheard “a conversation between Johnson and David McGee where the two discussed how

the kids were good at giving massages” and “observed some of the kids giving Johnson

shoulder massages with their hands”.

Members of a Cambodian family will often perform intimate tasks for each other –

combing each others’ hair for lice, lancing boils, performing “cupping” or “coining”, and

massage. Usually younger members of a family are prevailed upon to perform these for older

members of the family. In a domestic context, children are expected to ease the physical

sufferings of parents, grandparents, and other older relatives. Massage is not a sexual act in

Cambodia. Rather, it is seen as a means to encourage “bad blood” to rise to the surface of the

skin, or be eliminated by relocating it to the kidneys and liver so as to be excreted.

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Small children and appropriate behaviour

The FBI interviewed David Rawe on July 31, 2014. In this statement, Rawe says that he and

Johnson visited Prey Veng were he observed Johnson encounter a boy aged between two and

four years and “with his index finger, flicked the little boys [sic] penis four to five times” (FBI

31F-PD-3068949 2014, p. 1). The child was naked and running around outside he home. The

child and his mother were known to Johnson – in fact, Rawe states that Daniel had named

the child and provided assistance to his mother following her husband’s death. This places

Johnson in an avuncular position vis-à-vis the boy according to Cambodian society. Chuck

Roberts makes a similar statement regarding the same child, although he places him at 16

months old, and said that the “action was not done in a sexual manner, but it was done more

in a joking manner, and Johnson laughed after doing it”.

Pinching children’s cheeks, patting of buttocks, and pointing or fondling male

children’s genitals is a common occurrence in Cambodia (Ebihara 1974) . In the absence of

diapers (which are prohibitively expensive), children are left naked so as to facilitate toilet

training – usually by being held over the gutter to urinate or excrete or, once they can walk,

squatting down themselves over the side of the sidewalk. Drawing attention to the child’s

plump cheeks, full belly, or anatomically correct penis is a way of congratulating the family

on a healthy child. It is not meant as a sexual gesture. In flicking the boy’s penis, Johnson was

acting the way an uncle would comment approvingly on the child’s healthy physique.

Clothing conventions

Karla Comstock stated in her testimony to the FBI on August 6, 2014 that when in his room

– the “hangout room” as she described it as it had the TV and DVD player in it – “DANIEL and

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the boys, SATAN, LING and LUKA would hardly wear any clothes, they would have their

shirts off and would only be wearing underwear or boxer shorts”. She further stated that

“DANIEL didn’t react surprised or embarrassed when he saw her” while wearing only shorts.

On another occasion, Comstock related that Johnson was wearing “a little tiny yellow towel”

around his waist, having just emerged from the shower, “which would show one of his legs

when he sat down”. According to her, “wearing a towel is common in Cambodian culture but

not that small of a towel” and “DANIEL would walk around the village in a towel”.

There are two points upon which to comment here. First, most Cambodians own only

one set of “good” clothes, which they wear to school or work. In order to prevent excessive

wear and tear, and soiling from sweat, people remove their clothing as soon as they return

home for lunch or at the end of the day. As Cambodia has an average temperature of 85 F

year-round, once in the house women will change into loose pyjamas or a sarong, and men

will either strip down to underwear, a towel, or a short sarong. This is not considered sexual

attire, but rather a practical concession to the heat. Small children will run around naked for

the same reason.

Second, persons who possess omnaich, a Cambodian concept of social and political

power, should exhibit more social possession of their surroundings than their social

inferiors. For this reason, the more powerful a person is, the less he or she says. Similarly,

someone in a position of relative power is not required to “dress up”. Walking around a

village while attired in a sarong or towel is a clear social signal that the person thus clad is in

a position of power (Jacobsen and Stuart-Fox 2013).

Conclusions

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It is my opinion as a cultural expert on Cambodia, with three decades of experience in the

country, that the missionaries who visited Daniel Johnson in Cambodia at the children’s

center he was running mistook usual cultural practices as inappropriate due to their lack of

familiarity with Cambodia. They evaluated domestic arrangements and relationships

between Johnson and the children at the center according to what they perceived as normal

(Helliwell 2000), not according to what was usual for the children and the community.

Further, corrupt practice is endemic throughout law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

Local people are regularly expected to make a payment of cash or goods to judges in order

to have their case considered. Foreigners, with their perceived higher levels of wealth, are

expected to pay more, either to be freed on bail, jailed with basic levels of hygiene and

nutrition, or to have their cases judged on a level playing field. Finally, the promise of an S-

class visa in return for testimony would be a powerful encouragement to potential

“witnesses” already afraid of telling the police anything other than what the police wished

them to say.

Respectfully submitted,

Trude Jacobsen December 3, 2017

References

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Agustin, L.M. 2007. Sex at the margins: Migration, labour markets and the rescue industry.

London: Zed Books.

2017. Australian film-maker charged with espionage in Cambodia. The Guardian, June 11,

2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/11/australian-film-maker-

charged-with-espionage-in-cambodia

Brickell, Katherine. Clouding the judgement of domestic violence law: Victim blaming by

institutional stakeholders in Cambodia. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 32, 9: 1358-

1378.

O’Brien, E. 2013. Ideal victims in human trafficking awareness campaigns. In Crime, justice

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i The Cambodia Daily was forced to close by the Cambodian government in 2017 due to its
refusal to stop criticising the corrupt practices of its agents, but nonetheless maintains a web
domain in which its managing editor and owner frequently post opinions related to events
in Cambodia. This particular opinion was posted on February 1st, 2018
(https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/canberra-must-act-get-australian-james-
ricketson-jail-cambodia-134812/). The Cambodia Daily has now been permitted to reopen.
ii Ronald Leonhardt III is an ABD doctoral candidate at George Washington University, who

has spent the past ten months conducting participant observation at a major police unit in
Phnom Penh. It cannot be identified due to Internal Review Board regulations.

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