With the number of bag-snatching incidents
continuing to soar, embassies are left swamped and more tourists and locals are
ending up in hospital after bungled robberies. So what can be done to clamp
down on street crime?
Cambodia
is in the grip of a crime wave. In the past year, the rise in bag theft by
motorbike gangs has increased in Phnom Penh, mirroring an increase in more
serious crimes.
Since
there are no reliable police statistics, anecdotal evidence shows that more
tourists are being robbed, according to three major embassies.
“What
we can state is a continuous increase of loss of passports during all of 2013,”
wrote Joachim Baron von Marschall, German ambassador to Cambodia, in an email.
“[This trend] accelerated in the first trimester of this year, exceeding the
numbers for the whole of 2012.”
It was
a similar story from the US embassy.
“Anecdotally,
we have seen a rise in petty theft,” wrote Sean McIntosh, spokesman for the US
embassy. “We encourage US citizens to exercise caution and keep their valuable
belongings out of sight as a target for thieves.”
Nicolas
Baudouin, first secretary at the French embassy, revealed statistics to show
the rise in street crime. “The figures show an increase from 139 passports
stolen in 2011, to 190 in 2012 and to 332 in 2013,” he wrote. “Over the first
three months of this year, 46 French nationals reported a lost passport due to
a robbery [because of] bag snatching.”
The
increase in bag theft has seen an increase in the number of victims who have
suffered serious injuries. A tourist police official said there were 705 crime
and motor accidents involving tourists last year, compared with 570 in 2012.
“The
majority of the crimes committed are for financial gain and opportunistic,”
states a 2013 US government report on Cambodia by the Overseas Security
Advisory Council. “While the chances of being a victim increase dramatically at
night, daytime robberies are very common: pickpocketing and purse- or
bag-snatching is rampant, especially while riding in tuk-tuks.
“Transportation
centres, market areas, special events, the riverfront area and crowded buses
travelling to the provinces are prime areas.
“Youth
gangs continue to operate unimpeded throughout Phnom Penh. These gangs can be
violent and occasionally innocent civilians have been injured or killed. The
perceived ineffectiveness within the Cambodian National Police often leads to
vigilante-style justice. There was an increase in the past year of the number
of reports received from embassy personnel, NGOs [non-government organisations]
and expatriates of ‘snatch-and-grab’ thefts while riding in tuk-tuks and of
residential break-ins.”
Again,
the report offers few figures but voices concern over the general trend – petty
crime and violent crime are increasing.
Figures
from the French embassy for 2013 amount to nearly one report a day for French
citizens alone. Since those numbers do not include other nationalities and
locals, the extent of the problem becomes clear. In the past three years, Phnom
Penh has become one of the most crime-ridden cities in Southeast Asia.
Almost
every expat has a personal story or one told to them by a friend or associate.
Rainbow Li, an intern at Post Weekend, had her bag snatched when riding a
tuk-tuk last week.
“I
leaned forward to point the direction home to my driver, and two men on a
motorbike grabbed the bag and disappeared at the only moment my hand wasn’t
holding it,” she said.
Li lost
her passport and a considerable amount of money. She believes the thieves on
the bike had been following her since leaving the office, and that the tuk-tuk
driver may have been involved, since he gave no reaction to the theft. It was a
very well-timed, carefully planned snatch-and-grab.
“They
were professionals. They knew exactly what they were doing,” she said.
Web
forums and travel blogs are filled with such anecdotes of crime and injury. In
none of the examples did an effective police response result in the
perpetrator’s capture. There are only warnings and advice for others: Don’t
take a bag out at night, don’t wear expensive watches or jewellery, on a
motorbike keep bags between you and the driver, don’t try to fight the thieves
– your life means little to them.
“The
country that I once regarded as rough in places but largely peaceful has turned
into a place that leaves me feeling unnerved,” wrote Kate McCulley on her
popular travel website www.adventurouskate.com late last year, based on multiple
personal experiences.
The
rise in such crimes can be attributed in part to greater wealth disparity
between rich and poor. Other reasons include more incoming tourists, especially
from China, whose citizens have less experience of foreign travel and financial
and class pressures on urban workers who may need to support rural families. To
add to the problem, there is poor city infrastructure, such as a lack of street
lighting and decayed and cluttered footpaths that force pedestrians to walk in
the street.
While
tourists may be softer targets, such crimes are not limited to foreigners. They
also affect increasing numbers of Cambodians, with restaurant workers in BKK1
and the riverside reporting incidents that affected roughly equal numbers of
tourists and locals.
Police
“tea money” is part of the problem, as it fosters inaction. Everyone
interviewed on the subject was forced into paying the police at least $5. For
officers earning $100 a month, the extra $5 to $30 earned off of each report
becomes quite lucrative.
And the
victims have no choice but to pay – they need to file claims for insurance
companies and embassies. Investigating the thefts would take resources the
police may not have, and finding the culprits might involve danger and would
cut off a valuable income stream.
A
consequence of this is that petty crime usually goes unreported. For every
reported case there might be 10 or 20 where the police are not involved –
attempted thefts that were unsuccessful or the loss simply absorbed with a shrug
as one of the costs of intrepid travel. Most victims assume that the chances of
police assistance are minimal. Those who did file reports rarely hear about any
subsequent investigation.
As for
the tourist police, they did not respond to requests for comment for this
article. So, I can only refer to my case.
A
motorcycle pulled up alongside in the dark lane between Wat Phnom and the
riverfront, and the man on the back slipped a hand through my camera strap. The
other end of the strap was tightly wound around my right wrist, and when the
strap didn’t break the only thing that could give way was me. I flew through
the air behind the bike, one arm stretched in front of me, Superman-style, and
when I landed, smashing my head, shattering my shoulder and cracking three
ribs, the bike continued to drag me along for a block until the strap released.
Light-headed,
I picked myself up. My clothes were shredded and wet with blood. I felt no
pain, however, and the camera and heavy lens had landed softly in my right palm,
unscratched. Walking was no problem.
The
motorbike circled around again, looking for spoils – the two young men scowled
as they passed. As I walked back towards lit streets, people stopped and
stared. Tuk-tuk drivers followed, but whether out of kindness or criminal
intent I couldn’t tell.
Although
fearful of organised gangs, of drivers affiliated with the thieves taking me
somewhere to finish the job, I had no choice. I hailed one and asked for a
clinic.
We
arrived at a dark shop house with a small green cross on a dirty sign. The
driver had to wake the staff, a man and woman sleeping on the same cots on
which they performed surgery. They quickly stitched up gashes along my right
eyebrow, the side of my face and along my right shoulder. They handed me small
bags of antibiotics and painkillers, as well as the $40 bill. I was satisfied –
if that was the worst of it, I’d come out lightly. I couldn’t put on my shirt
again, and one shoe had also been torn apart. I returned to my guesthouse
barefoot, topless and covered in bandages.
Once I
lay down, though, it was clear that there were problems. My head grew hazier
and more muddled. Forming a coherent thought sequence became difficult. And I
couldn’t sit back up. Agony shot across my chest if I tried. With the
sleepiness came a hazy paranoia.
My
brain had rattled in its cage and perhaps bruised itself, swelling up. I
couldn’t focus on the gecko on the ceiling. Convulsions and nausea then gripped
my body. I was hyperventilating, shaking like an epileptic. This must be what
going into shock felt like. By this point it was 3am, and suddenly I was
worried I was dying. That fear helped me up.
The
bars were still open in the street, young women sitting outside shops looking
on in wide-eyed alarm as, barefoot, topless and shaking, I found another
tuk-tuk. Again I had no choice but to trust the driver.
I asked
for a particular modern Western-style hospice, and it was a relief when we
arrived into the clean white halls and smell of Dettol. Despite my state, they
were hesitant to admit me without proof of insurance, and I was unable to read
or even write my name.
I knew
I was concussed, that all the stitches at the last clinic hadn’t stemmed the
considerable bleeding, and something, maybe many things, were broken. I was
barely cognisant, and the right side of my body was shutting down.
X-rays
revealed a shattered clavicle but no skull fracture at least. Weeks later more
scans would find the cracked ribs. I would need immediate surgery that they
couldn’t do here. The night nurse waited with me until the morning.
Two
surgeries and 10 months of physiotherapy have followed, with the shoulder still
not healed but on course. It could have been worse, as they say, with the head
wounds only centimetres from causing more significant and permanent damage. The
hospital beds were full of others who had similar stories, some people coming
out considerably worse, even dying of their wounds.
The
police station closest to the incident was unhelpful to the point of being
openly hostile. Tourist police were slightly better but still asked for money
to fill out the forms. The worst aspect of such accidents is the feeling of
violation, the loss of trust in strangers, that follows. If my case had helped
expose or combat the problem, led to greater enforcement or countermeasures, it
would be easier to grasp retrospective positives. Instead it’s only a very
small voice in a collective large and unwavering scream.
The
Phnom Penh Post
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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