Slow justice for acid victims

Mom Kunthear and Irwin Loy

Phnom Penh Post

TWO litres of a corrosive acid altered Mean Sokreoun’s life forever. Fifteen years ago, she was a vivacious 22-year-old living with the man she loved.

However, on a muggy evening in May 1995, all of that changed as she lay in front of the television. She felt a sudden burning sensation over her body. A woman had walked in and poured a container full of acid over her. Mean Sokreoun leapt to her feet and felt, to her horror, the corrosive liquid eating through her skin. Parts of her face – including her nose and one ear – melted away and fell to the floor. She struggled helplessly to catch them. But the damage was already done.

‘I feel like a dead person’
Today, Mean Sokreoun lives in poverty, squatting on a small plot of land near Takhmao town. She had to sell her home and her land to pay for years of treatment on the scars that left much of her body disfigured.

Sitting in front of her home Wednesday, she pulled back her shirt to show what the acid did to her body. Scars lined her right leg and arms. The acid had scorched much of her torso, eating through skin and a breast.

Her hands fumbling, she lifted off the krama covering her face. The acid had seared through her right ear, nose and lips. It had melted the skin on her face and left her blind.

“It has been very difficult for me to live through all these years,” Mean Sokreoun said. “Even though I am alive, I feel like a dead person.”

It took 10 years of medical care, she said, to treat her horrific injuries. It took even longer for the woman who attacked her to be brought to justice.

Mean Sokreoun’s assailant – her husband’s jealous ex-wife – went unpunished for years after the attack. Police did not arrest her until March of last year. Later that month, she was convicted in a quick trial. She received a five-year prison term – a punishment Mean Sokreoun said was woefully insufficient.

“I think it is a very short time to sentence the perpetrator in jail for what she did to me,” said Mean Sokreoun, who added that she never received a court-ordered payment of US$7,000.

“I lost my eyes, nose, an ear and other parts of my body because she attacked me. And now the court has given such a light sentence. The court’s decision does not fit with my injuries and the suffering I have,” she said.

Her 71-year-old father, his hair flecked with wiry grey, looked on as she recounted her story.

“I want the government and court officials to give justice to my daughter,” Roth Mean said. “I’m so disappointed with the courts in our country. I won’t believe in the courts until I see justice for my daughter.”

Mean Sokreoun’s case highlights the complexities facing authorities drafting a new law to combat acid violence.

Advocates for acid attack survivors praise the government for its efforts. But they also warn that the justice system must be able to enforce the law if it is to be successful.

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