Burundi's child sex slaves: 'I feel like I have been used and tossed away'
Child intermediaries working for pimps recruit young girls who are
then either forced into prostitution or sold abroad
Agence France-Presse in Bujumbura
theguardian.com, Thursday 20 February 2014 02.00 EST

Burundi's child sex slaves include girls from poor rural backgrounds
and those brought up in middle-class families in the capital.
Photograph: Imagestopshop/Alamy
Pamela comes from an affluent family and was doing well in one of
Bujumbura's best-performing high schools – until two years ago, when
she became a sex slave.
She recalls befriending a group of girls when she was 14, who at first
proposed she join them when they went out. The trips led to dates with
older men who would pick up the bill, initially without asking for
anything in return.
One night she was taken to a house in Kiriri, a smart residential
district in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, where she was held for three
months under the supervision of men in police uniform.
"When a client came, if you didn't want to go with him they would slap
you and whip the soles of your feet," Pamela says, her voice
trembling. She was freed in a police raid after her mother reported
her missing.
"Such places exist in every part of town. You just have to open your
eyes to see them," says Florence Boivin-Roumestan, who leads Justice
and Equity, a Canadian NGO that has exposed the vast scale of sex
trafficking in the small central African nation.
"After months of investigations, we're seeing that human trafficking
and sex trafficking in particular exists in Burundi on a scale no one
would have imagined."
Victims include girls from poor rural backgrounds and those brought up
in middle-class families in the capital.
In a months-long investigation, Justice and Equity found that young
girls were being recruited across the country and either forced into
prostitution or sold abroad. "You find girls of nine or 10, but most
of them are in the 13, 14, 15 age range," Boivin-Roumestan says.
The trafficking takes different forms. In Bujumbura, it is girls from
well-off families who are targeted in the best schools. Fellow pupils
of both sexes are recruited by pimps to play the role of
intermediaries. They gradually gain the confidence of the victims, who
eventually end up in brothels.
Keza, who comes from a poor district in the capital, says she was
locked up and used as a sex slave by a senior intelligence officer for
several months when she was 15. "He threatened me and he threatened my
parents," she says, adding that she no longer wishes to see her family
after the ordeal.
"I filed a formal complaint against him and he received several
summons, but he has never shown up. The case has gone nowhere."
Khadija, 15, a Muslim girl from a poor rural family, remains
traumatised by her year-long ordeal, during which she was lured to the
Gulf. "Some people came to see my parents and said they had well-paid
domestic work for me in Oman," she says, staring at her feet.
"In fact, I worked 16 hours a day, every day. I slept on the floor and
I was never paid anything … Whenever my back was turned they would
come up from behind and try to lift up my dress."
Eventually she escaped and was able to return home. "I came back with
just the clothes I had on my back and the plastic slippers I had on my
feet," she says.
The three girls have been placed with families who work with Justice and Equity.
Boivin-Roumestan says it is difficult to establish exactly how many
children are affected. In Rumonge, for example, a small lakeside town
south of Bujumbura, the investigation found that of the 50 adult sex
workers questioned, half had been forced into the trade while they
were underage.
President Pierre Nkurunziza has vowed a crackdown. "Things are
changing. My budget has been increased, focal points are being set up
in every province. Today something is being done," says Christine
Sabiyumva, head of Burundi's youth brigade. She says she has known how
serious the problem is for years, but fought a lonely battle, mainly
because she had no budget and because police chiefs were not
interested.
Trafficking networks have been dismantled in several towns and some
brothels have been raided and closed in the past two months. "Arrests
are made every day. We have meetings with ministers, generals,
churches, youth groups and lawyers who all want to end this traffic,"
Boivin-Roumestan says. "But everything needs to be done. It'll take
some time to end."
For some of the victims it is too little, too late. "I'm angry, very
angry. I feel like I've been used and tossed away," says Pamela, who
is too scared to return to her family. "I want those who are
responsible for what happened to me to be punished."
Her pimp was arrested after she was freed, but he has since been
released. Pamela plans to go back to school and later pursue a law
degree so she can "help other girls who suffer what I suffered".
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/20/burundi-child-sex-slaves-prostitution&q=Burundi%27s+child+sex+slaves:+%27I+feel+like+I+have+been+used
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