HANOI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has been rocked by several child abuse cases reported across the country recently with local and social media networks abuzz with the distressing news.
In the country's southern Bia Ria-Vung Tau province, a 76-year-old man was accused of harassing seven children. However, he has yet to be charged over the cases in more than six months.
The delay has led to President Tran Dai Quang on Sunday giving orders personally to expedite the investigation.
In another case, police officers in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City's Thu Duc District held a press meeting on Monday afternoon to talk about the purported abuse of 7-year-old N.T.P.N.
After discovering a bloodstain near her genitals, N.'s mother took her to Tu Du Hospital for an examination. Based on the results, the doctors said that N. could have been abused, while the victim herself stated that she was molested by a man at school.
However, the Thu Duc Education Office later announced that the bleeding had resulted from N. tripping and falling in her classroom.
Officers said that the girl's statements were inconsistent, while her mother claimed that her daughter had told the truth.
On January 8, 2017, Nguyen, another victim's mother in Hanoi's Hoang Mai District, discovered her daughter had been sexually harassed. The young girl claimed that her abuser was C.V.H., who lived in a nearby rented house.
Two months after the mother reported the incident, Hoang Mai police concluded that there was not enough evidence for them to bring charges. It was not until an order by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh on Monday morning that in the evening, the Hanoi Department of Police launched an investigation into the alleged molestation of the eight-year-old girl.
"If I had not insisted that justice be served and the culprit face his punishment, there would have been many other kids being sexually abused like my little daughter," said Nguyen.
Over the past two months, Nguyen has left all of her her jobs to take care of her tormented child and submit petitions to all relevant authorities.
Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security showed that more than 1,000 children across Vietnam are sexually abused on an annual basis, meaning that one child becomes a victim every eight hours.
Most of the victims are young girls aged 12-15. However, what worries local people most is the proportion of less than six year old infants and babies who are sexually abused, which is alarmingly at 13.2 percent of the total.
"The series of news reports hurt and worried mothers like us," Nguyen Thi Ha, 29, told Xinhua in Hanoi, adding that as a woman she knows how painful and life-altering it must be to be a victim of sexual abuse, and as a mother of a girl, fully understands how insecure the victims' mothers may feel.
In a survey carried out recently by local media on why child abuse cases are slowly handled, some 44.2 percent of the participants said it was because Vietnamese legal agencies pay inadequate attention to the issue.
Another 22.9 percent of those surveyed said Vietnam is lacking social organizations to protect children. As many as 16.3 percent said families and relatives of the victims want to hide their personal information. The remainder blamed the parents of the victims for not knowing how to raise their voices and the alarm.
As local relevant authorities have not proven their effectiveness in dealing with child abuse cases, local parents have had to find their own ways to protect their kids.
"To combat danger of sexual abuse in this society, I have always taught my kids about their inviolable bodies and I share this information to alert other parents," Ha said.
Tran Viet Lam, a 30-year-old mother, said in addition to trying not to get panicked, she had also increased her wariness over the safety of her four-year-old girl.
"I am providing more easy-to-absorb' sexual education lessons to my kid, monitoring her daily timetable and places that she travels to. I have also considered buying self-defense devices," said Lam.
On Vietnamese social media sites, posts on the suspects in the three cases, and ways to teach children about sexual abuse have been widely shared.
In reality, on Sunday, a network of 15 organizations working on gender and gender-based violence in Vietnam, raised their concerns over the sharp increase of child abuse cases in the country.
According to Nguyen Van Anh, director of the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women, and Adolescents (CSAGA), many cases of child abuse have not been investigated properly, meaning the culprits have not been appropriately punished.
In such cases, as authorities require proof of any violation, evidence of molestation is difficult to obtain, Anh said.
Meanwhile, the credibility of statements from young victims is often questioned, resulting in many inconclusive cases.
Echoing Anh, Dang Hoa Nam, head of the Department of Child Care and Protection under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said that regulations have not been laid out to aid the investigation of child abuse crimes.
Child abuse has become more serious in Vietnam and also more complicated as many offenses are committed by the victims' relatives, step dads, or even birth fathers, said the official, adding that these ongoing cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
"If I'd these men ever abused my daughter, I'd bring justice myself," Ha said, vehemently.
