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Graham Cleghorn….victim
of injustice in |
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Reports > 2006 |
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Writing favourable stories about
Southeast Asian NGOs is one of Tom Fawthrop's specialties. His article on Graham
Cleghorn (Long Weekend, June 3-4), in which he tries to discredit critics of
the beleaguered Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre (CWCC) with innuendo, is one
such story. Other journalists tell different
stories. On June 1, the Mainichi Daily News reported that all nine
complainants against an Australian teacher had retracted their rape
allegations in the Cambodian appeal court. On June 10, the Bangkok Post
reported that one of the complainants had been interrogated by police. "They accused me of taking tens
of thousands of dollars to change my story. They demanded I tell them who had
paid us. They said they would be back", she said. "I told them over and over I
took no money and I know no names. I told them we changed our stories because
the CWCC promised us money if we accused the foreigners and then gave us
nothing." A police spokesperson dismissed
the reported presence of CWCC officials at the complainant's arrest as
"coincidence". Clearly, the CWCC needs closer
scrutiny than given by Fawthrop.
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