US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE650

UNCLAS PRAGUE 000650 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, EZ 
SUBJECT: GERMAN REPORTER RAISES OLD VIEWS OF CHILD 
PROSTITUTION IN CHEB 
 
 
  1.   The Czech press in late April renewed its coverage of 
     child prostitution in Cheb, a Czech town on the German 
     border.  Czech dailies described the account of a German 
     television reporter who asked in a club for sex with 
     children and was taken by one of the girls working there to 
     a flat, where he was shown the 12 year old girl and told the 
     price would be 200 Euros.  His videotape, allegedly 
     documenting the offer, is currently with police, who are 
     investigating the case. 
 
  2.   Claims of rampant child prostitution are nothing new to 
     the small border town of Cheb, the object of a 2003 study by 
     Catherine Schauer of the German NGO KARO.  Though Schauer 
     (who accompanied the reporter during his trip) claimed that 
     Cheb was a "haven" for pedophilia, her report was contested 
     by local police, who said that Schauer had refused to 
     cooperate with them, share her evidence, or document her 
     sources.  Nonetheless, Schauer's report caused nationwide 
     action about the problem, and a special police team ("Eger") 
     was formed in 2004 specifically to deal with child 
     prostitution in Cheb.  Since 1997, seven cases of commercial 
     sexual exploitation of children (child sex tourism) have 
     been investigated in Cheb. 
 
  3.   Although the seven investigated cases involved seven 
     separate criminals, this is not true for the other number 
     mentioned in the press.  Sixty cases of "endangering the 
     morals of juveniles" were investigated in 2004, but these 60 
     cases involved only three criminals, who offered the same 
     twelve children to foreigners seeking child sex and then 
     robbed them instead.  These cases were investigated under 
     the endangerment statute as there was found to be no 
     evidence of actual sexual assault on the children involved. 
 
  4.   Police in Cheb claim that reports that child sex 
     tourism is rampant in Cheb aggravate the existing problem in 
     the town by associating the two in the minds of consumers, 
     most of whom are German.  This sentiment is echoed by 
     Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan, whose Ministry heads 
     anti-trafficking efforts in the Czech Republic.  As per the 
     cases mentioned in paragraph three, police in Cheb claim 
     Cheb's profile as a "haven" has instigated a new crime: 
     child sex being used as bait to trap and rob foreign 
     consumers, who are then often too ashamed to report the 
     crime to the authorities.  This was also the fate of the 
     reporter, who later told police (but not the media) he was 
     robbed of the 200 Euros he was going to be charged for the 
     12 year old girl. 
 
  5.   Comment:  As acknowledged in this year's TIP report, 
     the Czechs continue to take anti-trafficking efforts in 
     their country very seriously.  While they recognize the 
     problems in Cheb and are working on them, sensational media 
     accounts by reporters unfamiliar with the issue do nothing 
     to help combat TIP in Cheb and possibly augment the existing 
     problem.  Police, however, take every account earnestly, and 
     are currently investigating these most recent claims.  KARO 
     likewise continues its work in Cheb, though currently 
     hindered by financial woes that forced the NGO to downsize 
     from six to two staff in January 2005. 
 
CABANISS