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Crime Reporter
Senior police officers from 10 African countries, including Zimbabwe, are currently on a five-day training session in Harare, focusing child abuse and exploitation crimes, which have reportedly grown at a rapid pace owing to the use of the internet.
The workshop is being conducted by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) and officers from Gabon, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa are attending.
Addressing the officers yesterday, Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga said the training was aimed at building global capacity to deal with crimes against children and that it was critical given that children were one of the most vulnerable members of society.
“It is equally gratifying to note that this training has drawn participants from 10 countries across the African continent. This is undoubtedly reflective of the colossal value that Police chiefs attach to the training of this magnitude.
“The advent of the cyberspace which is now a necessary reality has doubled the vulnerability of children to different crimes including varying forms of violence committed online. As such, this training programme is important as it builds on the ability of law enforcement agents to deal with one of the most serious crimes that has found its home on the cyberspace,” he said.
He said crimes of child abuse and exploitation had grown at a rapid pace owing to the utility of the Internet which has also made them transnational.
“Given this challenge, an internationally coordinated and targeted training has become essential as it enhances the law enforcement capabilities in different jurisdictions to deal with this despicable phenomenon. Moreover, this training programme will also enable collaboration between different police services across the region and globally thereby giving impetus to success in dealing with these crimes.
“It is disheartening to note that criminals have chosen to take advantage of our children’s presence on the internet to prey on them at a time when such presence online has become a necessity,” Comm Gen Matanga said.
He said in view of this, the training programme was aimed at capacitating the participants to be able to identify and rescue young victims of violence and ensure that online material that perpetuate child abuse is blocked.
“It is also expected to go a long way in preventing the migration of known sex offenders to different countries where they may continue to abuse children or use such migration to escape from justice. You will also agree with me that, if such capacity is developed across all countries, the paedophiles will indeed be stopped on their path down the criminal track and have nowhere to hide.
“Whilst the cyber space has given criminals added sophistry, I am happy to note that this training programme seeks to derive maximum utility on the same tools to curtail the wicked malady of crimes against children.
“The use of the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) Database that is going to be covered by this training will make our efforts as law enforcement agents efficient and be able to match the criminals’ sophistication,” he said.
Comm Gen Matanga said this makes the ICSE Database such a vital cog in the international efforts to account for child abuse fugitives and rid the cyber space of materials that are used to commit such crimes.
“It is also refreshing to note that this training will also build capacity among law enforcement agencies to share information across jurisdictions. This will also be cardinal in inhibiting the criminal enterprise that is targeting our young ones. It is my shared hope that all the participants will take advantage of this form of training to accumulate skills in handling such matters,” he said.
The acting Head of Interpol Regional Bureau for Southern Africa and SARPCCO coordinator Mr Phiwa Nhlengetfwa also said children were easily lured by the very websites and social media pages they should be shying away from.
“Thus social media and the cyberspace in its entirety have become breeding grounds for recruitment, grooming, exploitation and trafficking of children who are oblivious of the perpetrators’ schemes.
“Of course such perpetrators hide behind fake accounts online, and parade as law- abiding citizens by day, leaving law enforcement officers with the uphill task of identifying them. Offenders with sexual interest in children have gravitated towards the collection of images memorializing this exploitation,” he said.
He said the availability of high quality, cheap digital cameras and mobile phones has made the production process of Child Exploitation Materials (CEM) and memorialising physical offending easier than it has ever been.
CEM materials are collected for a number of reasons including: sexual gratification, grooming, validation, blackmail, trade, profit and memorising, said Mr Nhlengetfwa.
“For this reason, the principal objective of this training is analysing existing child sexual exploitation material from the ICSE (International Child Sexual Exploitation) database to identify the likely country of production and refer the case to the relevant country, ensuring that offenders, wherever they are, face justice.
“I am pleased to announce that the bureau is actively engaged in sensitising member states about the ICSE database and encouraging them to take full advantage of it.
“Also part of this drive is the encouragement of Member States to establish dedicated child sexual offences wings within their police organisations.
“Currently such cases are handled through the Gender Based Violence desks which does not afford child related cases the necessary attention.
“This germinal training has been tailor-made after a thorough needs assessment to fill the gaps created when technology evolves faster than law enforcement capacity, both in terms of training as well as crime fighting tools,” he said.
He urged the participants to acquaint themselves with the Luxembourg Guidelines, a set of guidelines aimed at protecting victims of sexual exploitation from demeaning language whilst using appropriately expository language for sexual offenders.
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