Samoa to address child abuse

By Alan Ah Mu

Once in Parliament the Minister of

Finance, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi,

defended children selling goods in the streets of Apia saying he himself did the same as a youngster.

It gives children an early lesson on how to handle money, he said, to counter voices from the Opposition benches ask ing something be done.

Now he is Prime Minister and Tuilaepa has endorsed setting limits on that sort of business lessons as leaders of all sectors of the community have started attacking child abuse in all it’s ugly forms.

Roman Catholic deacon, loane losefa, attacked parents using their children as “money making machines “by sending them to sell goods on the streets, in a ser mon during the usual church service screened by national television on Sundays.

Late May the Samoa Observer said, “We look forward to the day when chil dren are no longer engaged in child labour, selling ula (lei), fagusea (sea slug) and tauaga in town, but are attending school instead. “Even government, nor mally sensitive to publicity that casts less than a bright, happy picture of the coun try, which is hungry for overseas invest ment, aid and tourists, acknowledges that the growing number of school age street vendors is “a major problem”.

In it’s Statement of Economic Strategy 1998 - 1999, it said that “Demand for cash and other material contributions from vil lage councils and church give rise to eco nomic pressures which lead many fami lies to give priority to these community requirements at the expense of family health and education. “ Early May a 36 year man beat his

seven-year-old daughter so badly she

died.

“And the court asks why was the defendant so cruel to his daughter?” said Chief Justice, Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu.

“ Why did he strike her twice with an iofi

(Samoan tong)? “ The court believed the girl to have been the defendant’s biological daughter, but Tala Nei Newsagency later discovered she was, in fact, his wife’s child by another man. This type of beating fits into a pattern of abuse of step children. His Honour Tiavaasue himself in November last year mentioned the brutal pattern saying the number of cases involv ing the abuse of adopted or step children starting to appear before the court was of concern.

“I don’t know why (it is happening) but there must be a social cause behind this, “ he said in sentencing a man for the fatal beating of his wife’s son by another man.

The National Council of Women learned of the Chief Justice’s concern and was inspired to launch seminars to address vio lence against children that very month.

“This is a very hard topic. But it is so important,” president Mele Mataafa told the Samoa Observer. “When we talk about hit ting children first, the members kept saying ‘this is the Samoan way. I hit them because I love them,’ “ Mataafa said.

“We are hoping that people will think before they hit. We are hoping too that moth ers will help teach husbands and sons not to hit and so on. We have to see what training is needed, “ she said.

Yet the public’s knowledge of the reali ties heard in courts is fragile because it’s not a popular area for journalists. Only three

cover Supreme Court sentencing partially,

because in a small society reporters do not want to be describing to their families and fellow-villagers cases of incest, molestation, rape and unlawful carnal knowledge - let alone be known to be hearing detailed sexu

ally activity often.

Two of the three are young, unmarried females, one of whom endured hearing how a relative made love so loudly to his girl friend, a minor, they were discovered.

Talk about sex is taboo in most situations, certainly between relatives of the opposite genders and bad news in that area is not always welcomed as an issue of open public debate. Nor is the area of crimes generally.

The late and former Prime Minister, Tofilau Eti Alesana, called a private radio station to say criminal activity was not news and court coverage was stopped as a result. Sex crimes against children is thus particularly painful to air and it was almost a relief when Prime Minister Tuilaepa, a leader and thus suitable to talk of a sensitive topic, brought it out into the open inMarch.

Tuilaepa said hopefully the commer cial sexual exploitation of children in Samoa is small in proportion and must be stamped out before it takes hold.

It’s believed that that sort of activity can only expand through uncontrolled expansion of tourism, a growing industry and one of the country’s top earners. The country is thought too small for the selling of children for sex to be hidden for long.

“We must not lull ourselves that there is no serious problem of sexual exploita tion out there, and that stories of pae dophilia rings activities in Samoa are only anecdotal, “ Tuilaepa said, in giving thekeynote address in the first of a series of workshops to identify factors in the selling of children for sex, held by SUNGO, the umbrella body for non-gov ernment organisations. SUNGO is con cerned that the Pacific is vulnerable to being targeted by criminal networks - like paedophilia rings.

“The abuse of children, in whatever form, is abhorrent but sexual exploitation in my view, is it’s worst manifestation, “

Tuilaepa said.

As in other countries, children are also sexually abused in Samoa, he said.

“That it should also happen in Samoa is not easy for us to admit to and acknowl

edge, “ Tuilaepa said.

Victims of such abuse make silence their instinctive reaction and unless caring adults act decisively in alerting the author ities, those who prey on the innocent will continue to do so, Tuilaepa said.

Workshops will help government and the community make informed decisions on the issue, he said. ■