From The Economist: "Bartered Brides"

The kidnapping has been going on for some time, and locals talk of a number of cases so far this year. The abductions follow a pattern: a Hmong girl is wooed by an out-of-towner—whether from Vietnam or China is not clear—who speaks her language. She is lured to a rendezvous to be drugged and smuggled into China, probably near Lao Cai, about an hour’s drive from Sapa. Tall, pretty girls are said to be particular targets.

One 18-year-old recently managed to get back home to tell her tale after a four-day ordeal. Held captive in China, she escaped through a window and contacted the Chinese police, who returned her to Vietnam. Most do not escape. One of those kidnapped last month was a married woman with a son; friends fear her family may never see her again.

There is some tradition of bride-kidnapping among the Hmong themselves, but this gangsterised, cross-border variety is especially cruel. Village girls with little knowledge of the outside world tend to be trusting. And the kidnappers seem to operate with impunity—even, according to one account, seeking a reward for returning two underage girls whom they had failed to sell in China.

Within China itself, the abduction and sale of women has long been recognised as a prevalent social evil. Three decades of strict family-planning policies have exacerbated a traditional preference for boy children and contributed to a shortage of marriageable women.

Relations between Vietnam and China along their 1,300km (800-mile) border have improved: last month officials from the two countries, which fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979, completed a seven-year effort to demarcate the frontier. This, they hope, will open the way for increased links of various sorts. Stepped-up police co-operation to stamp out an evil little trade in Hmong women would be a good start.

Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

I read a recent interview of Gary Haugen (President of IJM), and I was impacted by his following statements:

"We are trying to equip and empower Christians to think about injustice with the eyes and hope of Christ, to be able to look at it with courage. What I see is Christians preoccupied and discouraged by their own fears. ... They are afraid of what's going to happen to their kids, what's going to happen in the culture, what's going to happen to their material situation. ... But Christians are not supposed to live in fear. What people seem to find in International Justice Mission, in the stories of what my colleagues are actually doing in the field, is a picture of Christian faith that is liberated from fear. They think, As a follower of Jesus, maybe I can be liberated both from fears and from the triviality of some of those fears. Yes, there is a need for Christians to be engaged with courage in the world, because people are hurting and need our help. But there is just as much a need for Christians who have resources and capacities to be liberated from a prison of small fears and triviality. For a lot of American Christians, the beginning is to realize that so much of the limitations of my Christian life are really coming out of my fear."

Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

Cauzal Coffee partners with International Justice Mission (IJM) in our human trafficking cauze. My personal experience with IJM was in Rwanda, where I was able to give some assistance to IJM as they began setting up their program in this small central African country. I was particularly impressed by IJM’s methodology of working through the existing public justice systems, helping to ensure that victims of abuse and oppression are given the full protection of the law in their own countries. Often, the existing legal system is not equitably applied, and IJM lawyers and investigators work with local officials to make public justice systems work for victims of abuse and oppression who urgently need the protection of the law.

The following video is an NBC Nightly News feature on IJM's work in Cambodia:

12-year-old Rhonda was walking through a familiar field on the way home to her grandmother. As the pathway turned the corner of an abandoned shed, a man grabbed her, threw her down in the shrubs and raped her. When he was finished he put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, then left her bleeding and alone, tossed aside like a piece of trash in the field. The man had pulled Rhonda’s right leg so violently that it came out of its socket and Rhonda could not walk. She crawled on her hands and knees to the roadside where she collapsed, covered in dirt and blood. A friend found Rhonda on her way back from school, carried her home and washed her.

Rhonda could not hide the pain from her grandmother, who thought she was sick, but never told about the incident. For Rhonda, all was hidden in fear and embarrassment. She tried walking her usual mile to school but soon the pain became unbearable and the silence impossible. Despite overwhelming fears from the perpetrator’s threats, she told a teacher what happened in the field. When Rhonda’s grandmother learned that her granddaughter’s pain was more than a serious stomach flu she began pleading with police to investigate and spent her entire savings on Rhonda’s preliminary medical exam. She prayed to God for rescue, asking why He had left them to suffer alone. Her pleas to officials fell on deaf ears until a magistrate told her to see the staff from International Justice Mission (IJM).

IJM Kenya staff listened to Rhonda, documented her case and, with local authorities have taken action against the rapist to ensure he will never abuse another child. In May 2004, the perpetrator was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In their dirt-floor shanty, Rhonda’s grandmother offered a prayer, “Lord, I am worthless before the world but You are worthy. I am meaningless but You are our help.” And with the same voice of confidence she tells us, “He answered my prayers by sending you.” Rhonda is now receiving proper medical attention and continues to heal. IJM continues to stand with Rhonda and her grandmother, bringing hope where there was silence. 

Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

Share this Blog on facebook

I just read an open letter to the United Nations from community leaders in eastern Congo, dated 18 November. I encourage you to read the letter in its entirety, as it is stunning and shocking. Below is a fragment from the letter. Elsewhere in the letter it asks the questions: Who will protect us? Who will help us? Do we not deserve protection? Are we not equal to others?

How would you answer these questions ...?   

 

 Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

Share this Blog on facebook

Subscribe to receive the Cauzal Connections blog by Email

Share this Blog on facebook