More than half of Cambodia’s 20,000 to 55,000 prostitutes are kidnapped and then physically coerced into the sex trade, according to a human rights organization’s report released yesterday. According to the Cambodian group Licadho, brothels have become “probably the fastest-growing forum for torture in Cambodia in recent years.” The report targets the police and military, which act as the customers, middlemen, and protectors in the violent industry. An overwhelming 38 percent of the prostitutes in Cambodia had been abused, with some reporting that the abusers stifled their resistance through beatings, force-feeding of drugs such as heroin and valium, or electrical shock. States Licadho, “Few other categories of torture victims endure such a complete traumatic experience: physical, sexual and mental abuse, deprivation of freedom.”
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