DanChurchAid
Cambodia
Sokhun: A 13-year-old artist in prison
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DanChurchAid
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| Drawing from the art exhibition "Our Drawings" arranged by DanChurchAid. The drawings are made by children between the ages of 13 and 17 who were inmates in prisons in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Siem Reap provinces. |
Sokhun is sitting on a bench in the outside area of Kandal Provincial Prison - a model prison in Cambodia. He is wearing the mandatory blue prison clothes, with no marks and a single white stripe in each side of his pants.
Though it is past ten o clock and Sokhun has been up for over five hours, has he not eaten yet. First daily meal out of two is served at 11.
Since November 2, 2006 when the police caught him and a friend stealing a piece of wire from a house, 13-year-old Sokhun and his friend have been sitting on the same bench waiting for food time everyday. Sokhun remembers his last hours outside Kandal prison.
"Suddenly the police was there in the house and we hid our hands behind our backs, but they started beating us and took us to the police station. There, they beat us and gave us electrical shocks. And then they took us here," Sokhun says.
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DanChurchAid
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| Drawing from the art exhibition "Our Drawings" |
His brown eyes do not stray and his hands lay calmly in his lab, while he tells his story.
The two boys were sentenced to 3 months and 10 days in prison for robbery. Their lawyer appealed immediately, but it has not been processed yet.
The boys cannot leave the prison before they have a verdict, according to Cambodian law. Chetra Navy, the boys’ lawyer from Legal Aid of Cambodia, a DCA collaboration partner, explains that she has asked for the verdict every month since the appeal. But the judge keeps postponing the decision.
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Maia Kahlke Lorentzen
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| Cambodian boy looking at the drawings from the art exhibition |
Sokhun gets up with a sudden move. He wants to fetch his drawing book before the meal, he says. About a month ago, when DanChurchAid launched the exhibition "Our Drawings" as the conclusion to a project dealing with the conditions for juveniles in Cambodian prisons, he was one of the contributors.
The Interior Ministry confiscated four of the drawings on the night before the opening. (See the article about the incident as it appeared in local paper The Cambodia Daily here ). But Sokhun has more drawings and is eager to show them to visitors.
Sokhun runs past several work shop – mechanic, hairdresser, sewing shop – on his way to the drawing class room. He quickly returns with his book.
Chetra Navy does not know when the youngster – who has served his sentences months ago – will be released, she says. Her guess is 2-3 years – that is what it normally takes to process an appeal in the Cambodian court system.
Sokhun does not know either. He shrugs his shoulders and opens his drawing book. He wants to be an artist, he says.
One of the pictures is a self portrait. It shows Sokhun sitting on the floor in his cell, surrounded by four guards with grave faces. In Khmer, it says ”I do not want to be beaten while I am in jail”.
Sokhun is sitting uneasily on the bench. It is almost 11. Chetra Navy promises him to come back soon and he gets up. After letting his two hands meet in front of his chest as a goodbye, he heads for the dining hall.
By Anya Palm, journalist, anyapalm@gmail.com
The Securing Children’s Rights project is co-funded by the European Union . The project is implemented by LAC , LICADHO and DanChurchAid. The Securing Children’s Rights project operates in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kandal and Kampot provinces. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.
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