Over the last nine years, the NGO Child Protection Unit (CPU) has worked with police in investigating 200 cases of child homicide.

In a recent Facebook post, CPU said the 200 cases was a number filled with sadness and mixed emotions. March 15, it said, marked 200 homicides and suspicious deaths of children that CPU has been called to investigate.

Rather than breaking down the number in the Facebook post, CPU executive director James McCabe paid tribute to the CPU’s small dedicated team that has been on standby around the clock for the last nine years to investigate those cases.

McCabe said: “In 2013, we started with three people as the first dedicated child homicide investigation team in the country. That team has now grown to a group of 10 highly skilled, committed, dedicated and professional people including forensic experts, investigators and family welfare officers dedicated to the investigation of child homicides and the welfare of surviving family members.

“It is my privilege and honour to command such a loyal and committed crew.

“Every child homicide is remembered and never forgotten but some would leave a permanent scar on your heart. That is the nature of the work we do, and none of us are unscathed. We can recall vividly the cases that have affected us the most.

“It’s a sad reality you need to have that emotion that loathing of an offender that drives you to seek justice because that is what keeps you going ensuring that any person who harms a child is held to account,” he said.

In 2019, the Ministry of Interior signed a memorandum of understanding with five civil society organisations working against human trafficking with a particular focus on child protection including CPU.

Chou Bun Eng, ministry secretary of state and permanent vice-chair of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, said on March 18 that currently offenses that occurred in Cambodia hand worsened, especially those against children.

She said this was a brutal picture because most offenders had suffered memory loss related to drug problems.

“Currently, the problems related to this crime have happened a lot, but the crime is not unique to Cambodia. There are some Cambodians that experience emotional problems and have learned about this crime on social media.

“But if we don’t make an extra effort, we will encounter a more serious problem. So we make the effort to solve and stop it,” she said.

Bun Eng continued that authorities, in cooperation with partner organisations, would continue to crack down and stop the crime as well as educate people and make sure that offenders are brought to justice in accordance with the law.

“We are satisfied cooperating with CPU because this group, as with all partner organisations, have worked well with our police forces, especially the cases CPU has joined to investigate – we have solved 90 per cent of child homicides,” she said.