This story discusses graphic details of slavery, sexual abuse and violence

Pacific children as young as six are being adopted overseas and being made to work as house slaves, suffering threats, beatings and rape.

Kris Teikamata — a social worker at a community agency — spoke about the harrowing cases she encountered in her work, from 2019 to 2024, with children who had escaped their abusers in Auckland and Wellington.

“They’re incredibly traumatised because it’s years and years and years of physical abuse, physical labour and and a lot of the time, sexual abuse, either by the siblings or other family members,” she said.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific child abuse reports

“They were definitely threatened, they were definitely coerced and they had no freedom.

“When I met each girl, [by then] 17, 18, 19 years old, it was like meeting a 50-year-old. The light had gone out of their eyes. They were just really withdrawn and shut down.”

In one case a church minister raped his adopted daughter and got her pregnant.

Teikamata and her team helped 10 Samoan teenagers who had managed to escape their homes, and slavery — two boys and eight girls — with health, housing and counselling. She fears they are the tip of the iceberg, and that many remain under lock and key.

“They were brought over as a child or a teenager, sometimes they knew the family in Samoa, sometimes they didn’t — they had promised them a better life over here, an education and citizenship.

“When they arrived they would generally always be put into slavery. They would have to get up at 5, 6 in the morning, start cleaning, start breakfast, do the washing, then go to school and then after school again do cleaning and dinner and the chores — and do that everyday until a certain age, until they were workable.

“Then they were sent out to factories in Auckland or Wellington and their bank account was taken away from them and their Eftpos card. They were given $20 a week.

“From the age of 16 they were put to work. And they were also not allowed to have a phone — most of them had no contact with family back in Samoa.”

‘A thousand kids a year… and it’s still going on’
Nothing stopped the abusive families from being able to adopt again and they did, she said.

A recent briefing to ministers reiterated that New Zealanders with criminal histories or significant child welfare records have used overseas courts to approve adoptions, which were recognised under New Zealand law without further checks.

“When I delved more into it, I just found out that it was a very easy process to adopt from Samoa,” she said.

“There’s no checks, it’s a very easy process. So about a thousand kids [a year] are today being adopted from Samoa. It’s such a high number — whereas other countries have checks or very robust systems. And it’s still going on.”

As children, they could not play with friends and all of their movements were controlled.

Oranga Tamariki uplifted younger children, who were sometimes siblings of older children who had escaped.

“The ones that I met had escaped and found a friend or were homeless or had reached out to the police.”

Loving families
When they were reunited with their birth parents on video calls, it was clear they came from loving families who had been deceived, she said.

While some adoptive parents faced court for assault, only one has been prosecuted for trafficking.

Government, police and Oranga Tamariki were aware and in talks with the Samoan government, she said.

Adoption Action member and researcher Anne Else said several opportunities to overhaul the 70-year-old Adoption Act had been thwarted, and the whole legislation needed ripping up.

“The entire law needs to be redone, it dates back to 1955 for goodness sake,” she said.

“But there’s a big difference between understanding how badly and urgently the law needs changing and actually getting it done.

“Oranga Tamariki are trying, I know, to work with for example Tonga to try and make sure that their law is a bit more conformant with ours, and ensure there are more checks done to avoid these exploitative cases.”

Sold for adoption
Children from other countries had been sold for adoption, she said, and the adoption rules depended on which country they came from. Even the Hague Convention, which is supposed to provide safeguards between countries, was no guarantee.

Immigration minister Erica Stanford said other ministers were looking at what could be done to crack down on trafficking through international adoption.

“If there are non-genuine adoptions and and potential trafficking, we need to get on top of that,” she sad.

“It falls outside of the legislation that I am responsible for, but there are other ministers who have it on their radars because we’re all worried about it. I’ve read a recent report on it and it was pretty horrifying. So it is being looked at.”

A meeting was held between New Zealand and Samoan authorities in March. A summary of discussions said it focused on aligning policies, information sharing, and “culturally grounded frameworks” that uphold the rights, identity, and wellbeing of children, following earlier work in 2018 and 2021.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• Links to where to get help

Family members keep silent on the issue of violence in Fiji and individuals continue to be the victims, according to Jonathan Veitch, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative to the South Pacific.

While raising his concern on the issue at Nasinu Gospel Primary School on Friday, he said 83 percent of children in Fiji had reported some level of violence, either in their family or in school over the past six months.

“This 83 percent rate is far too high, and it’s not acceptable,” he said.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji reports

“The problem is that when the violence is happening, there’s kind of a curtain of silence.”

Visiting UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said although legal processes should be ensured, it was also important to acknowledge the rehabilitation process for the victim to deal with the trauma.

Speaking during a student-led press conference at Nasinu Gospel Primary School, Veitch expressed his concern about the alarming rate of violence against women and children in Fiji, whether physical or sexual.

“You (Fiji) do have high rates of violence against children,” Veitch said.

“This (83 percent rate) is far too high, and it’s not acceptable.

‘Curtain of silence’
“The problem is that when the violence is happening, there’s kind of a curtain of silence.”

He said it was common in Fiji for family members to keep silent on the issue of violence while individuals continued to be victimised.

“If that particular person has to be stopped, we have to deal with it in our village.

“So, it’s not just UNICEF and the Government; it’s also the village itself.”

Veitch said significant pillars of communities must be involved in key conversations.

“We really need to talk about it in our churches on Sundays; we have to have an honest conversation about it.

“These kids shouldn’t be hurt; they shouldn’t be punished physically.”

Multifaceted approach
He said the issue should be dealt with through a multifaceted approach.

Visiting UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell expressed similar concerns and called for a change in norms.

“It requires government leadership and good laws,” she said.

“It requires the government to come together and say that this is a priority where violence against children is unacceptable.”

She said conversations regarding the matter needed to focus on changing the norms of what was acceptable and unacceptable in a community.

“A lot of times this issue is kept in the dark and not talked about, and I think it’s very important to have those conversations.”

She said although legal processes should be ensured, it was also important to acknowledge the rehabilitation process for the victims to deal with the trauma.

She added that society played a role in condemning violence against women and ensuring they were safe in their homes and in their communities.

Russell said while most cases were directed at men, there was a need to train the mindset of young boys to change their perspective of using violence as a solving mechanism.

Sainimili Magimagi is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

In a deeply Catholic country, accusations that an American priest abused dozens of children at an orphanage stunned many in East Timor.

So when independent journalist Raimundos Oki heard that a group of girls planned to sue authorities, claiming they had been subjected to unnecessary virginity tests as part of the criminal case, he knew he had to hear their story.

Oki published interviews with the girls on his news website, Oekusi Post, ahead of the trial of Richard Daschbach. The then 84-year-old American priest was jailed in December for 12 years for child abuse.

• READ MORE: Other reports about journalist Raimundos Oki
• Other reports on the Richard Daschbach case

But now Oki is under investigation himself, on accusations that he breached judicial secrecy.

The case is unexpected in East Timor. Also known as Timor-Leste, the country has one of the better records globally for press freedom.

Groups including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Human Rights Watch, however, note that the risk of legal proceedings and a media law with vague provisions that journalists “promote public interest and democratic order” could encourage self-censorship on some subjects, including accusations of abuse in the Catholic Church.

Call from police
Oki learned that he was under investigation when police called on June 29, ordering the journalist to report to a police station in Dili, the capital, the following day.

At the station, police informed Oki that the public prosecutor’s office had ordered an investigation into the journalist for allegedly “violating the secrets of the legal system.”

The investigation is connected to the reports Oki published in 2020 about a planned lawsuit against authorities. In it, the claimants alleged authorities subjected them to virginity tests while investigating claims of abuse against the priest.

In their lawsuit and in interviews with Oki, the claimants said they had told authorities they were not among the minors abused by the priest, but that authorities still forced them to undergo the invasive procedure.

“They wanted to share what they went through with the public,” Oki said. “As a journalist, it is my duty to share their stories with the world.”

At the time that his articles were published, the priest was still on trial. Oki said a police officer told him the judicial secrecy accusation was linked to Daschbach’s trial.

Authorities have not responded publicly to the lawsuit, which was filed in July 2021.

The public prosecutor’s office in Dili didn’t respond to VOA’s request for comment.

If convicted, Oki could face up to six years in prison.

‘Public interest’
Both the journalist and his lawyer, Miguel Faria — who also defended Daschbach in his trial — deny that Oki breached judicial secrecy, citing public interest as a justification for publishing the interviews.

“Cases of forced virginity tests are considered public interest, and it is very important for the public to know what happened to these victims,” Faria said.

The lawyer said that in this case, “the victims speak firsthand about their experiences”.

Judicial secrecy laws are often enforced to ensure the right to a fair trial or to prevent the risk of a jury being influenced by reporting. UNICEF and others also have guidelines for coverage of child abuse and trials to prevent minors being identified or retraumatised.

Rick Edmonds, a media analyst at the Florida-based Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said that in some countries, interviewing witnesses during or even shortly before a trial takes place can jeopardise the trial or provide grounds for appeal if the jury was not entirely sequestered.

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at RSF, said that prosecutors should consider some legal arguments, including that the girls’ testimonies were published during Daschbach’s trial.

But, he said, “from a press freedom point of view, we need to look at the bigger picture on this issue and think about the public interest.

“I think the very key in this case is the idea of public interest. In a functional democracy, there can be some debate between the necessity of judicial secrecy and the need for the public to know exactly what is at stake,” Bastard told VOA.

Showing the suffering
Oki said his objective was to show the suffering the girls went through. At the time, he said, the media focus was the trial of the priest and not the experiences of minors, who say they went through unnecessary procedures while the case was investigated.

“Forced virginity test is a violation of basic human rights,” he said. “This practice is against every international norm of human rights.”

The reporter said authorities didn’t need to carry out such tests to build a case against the former priest.

The United Nations has called for so-called virginity tests to be banned, saying the procedure is both unscientific and “a violation of human rights.”

Parker Novak, a Washington-based expert on East Timor, believes Oki’s case is controversial because it touches on the role of the church in the Timorese society.

“There is a reluctance in the Timorese media, in the Timorese society, to report critically on influential institutions and leaders,” he told VOA.

The Catholic Church is arguably the most influential institution in the Timorese society, he said.

“So certainly, any reporting that can be perceived as critical of the church, even if that reporting is wholly justified, whereas this case probably was, it’s still seen as taboo within the Timorese society, and that’s what causes controversy,” Novak added.

Closed trial
East Timor is said to contain the highest percentage of Catholics outside Vatican City, and the priest, Daschbach, was a revered figure in the community who had the support of former President Xanana Gusmao, who attended the sentencing.

The Associated Press reported that Daschbach’s trial was closed to the public and that some witnesses complained of being threatened.

A US federal grand jury in Washington later indicted the priest for illicit sexual contact in a foreign place and wire fraud.

Oki has faced legal action previously for his reporting. In 2017, the journalist was accused of criminal defamation over a 2015 article published in the Timor Post about then-Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo.

Charges in that case were later dropped, but Oki believes the case against him this time is more complicated.

“If they want to politicise it, then I believe they will imprison me,” Oki said.

“However, if they look at the story, which was published last year along with several videos, they will see that there is no wrongdoing.”

Journalist and editor-in-chief Raimundos Oki of Timor-Leste’s online media Oekusipost.com was today accused of “violating legal secrets” related to his reporting about the case of illegal detention and forced virginity testing of about 30 underage girls in Oe-Kusi Ambeno during 2020.

The Dili District Court sentenced a former American missionary to 12 years’ jail in a controversial paedophilia case.

At the same time the government mandated several local police to detain about 30 underage girls from the Topu-Honis shelter for two weeks and to perform forced virginity tests in June 2020 in Oe-Kusi Ambeno.

• READ MORE: Former priest, 82, jailed for 12 years over Timor-Leste child abuse
• UN cases call for ban on virginity tests
• Girls from Topu-Honis shelter illegally detained
• Other Topu-Honis abuse case reports

The test results later were later used in evidence for prosecutors to prosecute former American missionary Richard Daschbach, who was already in prison in Becora-Dili in December 2021.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN human rights agencies, the practice of virginity testing on girls is a violation. However, human rights activists in Timor-Leste are alleged to have kept silent about the case.

Daschbasch is already serving his sentence in Becora-Dili prison, but the victims of forced virginity tests are still awaiting justice.

According to their statement at the Oe-Kusi Ambeno District Court, they had never been sexually abused or raped by anyone but their genitals had been injured when forcibly tested.

Journalist Oki was charged with violating legal secrecy because of his coverage of the Topu-Honis shelter case, including the case of forced virginity testing.

He exercised his right of silence while appearing before the Criminal Investigation Scientific Police (Polícia Científica de Investigação Criminal) office.

Republished with permission.

The trial of a former US priest accused of child abuse in Timor-Leste due to resume tomorrow at the Oecusse Court has been postponed until May 24, according to judicial sources.

The president of the Court of Appeal, Deolindo dos Santos, confirmed the postponement to Lusa news agency, explaining that he was asked by the lawyers for the defendant, Richard Daschbach. He was concerned with the current conditions due to the covid-19 sanitary lockdown in the Timorese capital.

The judge explained that the rules of the lockdown obliged anyone who has to travel to present negative covid-19 tests, and that the conduct of the trial required the trip to the Oecusse enclave of one of the judges hearing the case, the translator, the lawyers of defence and the defendant, members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other parties involved.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the defrocked priest case
• ‘Don’t be disrespectful. He will be upset with you if you don’t sleep with him.’

“An application was made for the defendant’s defence to the Oecusse Court, which notified the Public Ministry to respond. The court received this response and issued an order to postpone it until May 24,” said dos Santos.

Daschbach, who is under house arrest in Dili, began trial in February for crimes of child abuse, child pornography and domestic violence.

The trial, which is closed to the public, had two sessions scheduled on March 22 and 23.

Daschbach was expelled from the Congregation of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in East Timor and from the priesthood by the Vatican for the “committed and admitted abuse of minors” in an orphanage in the country, Topu Honis.

“SVD Timor-Leste wants to emphatically reiterate that based on the heinous crime committed and admitted of child abuse at the Topu Honis orphanage, Mr Richard Daschbach was expelled, after an ecclesiastical criminal process, from the religious and clerical state by the Congregation for Doctrine da Fé, in the Vatican, on November 6, 2018,” said a recent communiqué of the organisation.

Deolindo dos Santos told Lusa that given the evolution of the cases of covid-19 and with sanitary fences in effect, the judiciary was working to “enable judgments to take place at a distance” by video conferencing.

Xanana Gusmao’s recent contrived jovial participation in the birthday celebrations of “self-professed” paedophile and defrocked foreign priest Richard Daschbach has shocked many of his supporters, not least his Australian former wife and three Timorese-Australian sons who have publicly condemned the visit and written apologetic letters to the young women who were due to give evidence against Daschbach in court this week.

At the very well-publicised “birthday party” held in the home of a diehard Catholic supporter, Gusmao embraced and hand-fed Daschbach birthday cake, and tipped champagne into his mouth.

The visit has been interpreted as a heavy-handed attempt to whitewash Daschbach’s ruined reputation just before the court case commenced, and intimidate the prosecution, and the young witnesses who are in hiding due to just this sort of pressure.

• READ MORE: Fear still marks the trial of a former priest in Timor-Leste enclave
• More articles on the defrocked paedophile priest case

In blatantly favouring the reputation of an ex-priest over the safety and wellbeing of his alleged victims, these male elites demonstrate a fundamental element of patriarchy defined as: “… a set of social relations between men, which have a material base, and which, through hierarchy, establish or create interdependence and solidarity among men that enable them to dominate women”. (Hartmann, 1979, p11).

Why would Gusmao bother?
It can be explained by long-term patriarchal relationships between particular conservative priests and resistance leaders such as Gusmao, and the almighty political, social and spiritual power of the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste to co-opt political leaders.

Gusmao’s visit is said to have been to honour the ex-priest’s role in the struggle for independence. Yet it also has to do with the low status and lack of power of poor young females, orphans with no one to protect them, and the phenomenal combined power of the clergy and the heroes of the resistance – when these patriarchal forces come together in Timor, very few can contest their will.

Yet some are speaking – and have spoken out – including Gusmao’s Australian sons; more progressive clergy; journalists and their professional association; lawyers representing the victims and others from the legal community; the women’s organisations protecting the alleged victims; and ordinary citizens expressing horror on social media, where the topic has been discussed.

This list will continue to grow. These are the new progressive forces in Timor-Leste contesting the power of the old patriarchal forces.

Daschbach has openly confessed more than once to the crimes, and was expelled from the priesthood and Catholic Church after an investigation in 2018. Since then, the justice system in Timor has struggled with prosecuting the case due to the interference of local religious supporters of the ex-priest, and a lack of appetite for arresting and imprisoning a priest.

While the problem is a global one and not well dealt with anywhere, to understand why this has happened in Timor, some appreciation for the particularities of the Catholic Church there is required.

As a Catholic country, with more than 90 percent adherence, the church wields enormous social, political and spiritual power, and priests are revered as God on earth. Daschbach was treated as a “demigod” with “magical abilities” and a “direct line to Christ”.

People still bow down or kneel and kiss the ring of priests to greet them. Others are simply too afraid to speak out for fear of excommunication, and the social, political and spiritual implications of this for themselves and their families.

Due to the Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste remains “wedded to ideas of hierarchy and obedience” largely unaffected by liberal changes introduced by the second Vatican Council.

The deeply conservative church provides the moral and spiritual underpinning of an unequal gender regime. This leads to the significant conservative impact of religious discourses on gender roles and relationships, sex, reproduction, and homosexuality.

A woman activist explains that Catholic priests will not accept “modern” ideas about gender equality, or address sexual abuse and violence: “… they are more inclined to men’s perspectives and […] the patriarchal mentality“.

The church’s religious doctrines heavily influence government policy, leading to a lack of sex education in schools and reproductive healthcare, including the use of condoms as a protective measure to avoid pregnancy and disease, resulting in many avoidable deaths.

The inner circle: The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
While the Bishop of Dili has urged all Catholics to respect the Vatican’s decision to expel Daschbach, there’s a hardcore group within the church, led by lawyers from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, who have led his campaign of support.

Commission members even visited the orphanage where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, and spoke to potential victims and witnesses, as well as parents, police, and lawyers.

In a report, they accuse the Timorese judicial and police authorities and organisations that have supported victims of being a “justice-mafia” and, perversely, of “collective sexual abuse” (for conducting medical examinations), “exploitation of underage girls”, and “human trafficking” (for moving them to a safe house).

By disclosing the names of alleged victims, witnesses, and the suspect himself, one local lawyer says they have broken the law. The Archbishop swiftly sacked the president of the commission.

The gender challenge
Gender relations apparent in contemporary Timorese society are the result of complex political and historical circumstances.

The dominance of men in Timorese history and politics, and the legacy of militarisation and conflict with neighbouring Indonesia during the national struggle for independence (1974-1999) are significant issues in contemporary Timorese society that pose enormous challenges for the nation.

As in most post-conflict societies, the effects of militarisation on society have not been adequately dealt with. I have argued that it was this that led to internal violence among the male political leadership resulting in a national crisis in 2006, and shattering of national reconstruction and development.

A tough and brutalised masculinity has significant damaging effects for the young men who try to live up to it, but also others such as the LGBTI community who face persecution and discrimination.

The negative influence of the Catholic Church on attitudes to homosexuality highlights the crucial work needed to combat the solid wall of intolerance built by conservative forces.

A recent secret research report found that young women have a lack of knowledge, choice, and agency in first sexual experiences leading to sexual abuse. Young women were often unaware that their consent was even required for sex.

In another study, between 20 to 30 percent of men admitted to rape, and in another acceptance of public sexual harassment and forced sex was clear. This may be linked to even higher levels of sexual abuse experienced by men. A shocking 42 percent of the men surveyed in 2016 reported being sexually abused before the age 18.

More powerful men
While research data does not yet exist on perpetrators of male victims, it seems likely that more powerful boys or men from within their own families, communities, clubs, schools and churches were the perpetrators.

The patriarchal hierarchies of power within institutional settings must be challenged if vulnerable people, including women and children, are to be protected – and not just in Timorese society.

There is no disputing that Gusmao completed a Herculean task in leading the East Timorese people to independence, and his resolute leadership and bravery will never – nor should ever – be forgotten.

Yet his reputation is being tarnished by such allegiances to the old authoritarian patriarchal order that he once fought against as a young man. Culture is dynamic, and both internal and external progressive forces signal change in Timor-Leste.

Newer progressive forces in Timor contesting older hierarchies of power are in need of support and international solidarity, and supporters of Timor-Leste, and Gusmao in particular, in Australia and other places need to take note.

There are Timorese men working and advocating for an end to violence against women, alongside Timor’s tenacious women’s movement that has worked so hard in this space, but more political leadership on gendered violence is required by the state.

Timor Leste’s extremely youthful population represents a great opportunity for positive change and renewal.

Dr Sara Niner is a lecturer in anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Monash University. This article is republished from Lens Monash under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

The fear that has led for years to silence dozens of children, allegedly victims of sexual abuse by a former priest who begins trial today in Timor-Leste’s western enclave, still shrouds the case.

Witnesses, victims and others who knew about the abuse – including people involved in the process – prefer not to speak, pointing in some cases to the feeling of deference to the figure of the accused American Richard Daschbach, 84.

Even after being expelled from the priesthood and officially condemned by the Vatican, Daschbach continues to be venerated by many who call him “master” and who minimise or ignore the crimes he is accused of.

• READ MORE: Other Timor-Leste former priest case reports

Instead, they highlight his humanitarian action and even the support he gave during the Indonesian occupation, in some cases, mixing truths with myths.

When he recently turned 84, for example, some of his supporters posted a photo of him in traditional Timorese clothing on Facebook.

The publication had hundreds of congratulatory votes and even a “tag” on the page of one of its alleged victims.

Even if the rumours circulated, the matter was rarely more than half conversations or references in secret, a situation that would have continued if one of the victims had not brought her abuse report to the congregation.

Punished by the Vatican
Richard Daschbach, detained in 2019, who has already been punished by the Vatican, is accused of abusing at least two dozen children at the orphanage where he worked, Topu Honis, located in Oecusse.

The prosecutor also charges Daschbach with the crimes of child pornography and domestic violence.

Unprecedented in Timor-Leste, as it involved a former church member, the case has sparked controversy and intense debate.

Current and past sources in the Timorese judicial sector, heard by Lusa, highlight the importance of the process, admitting that the outcome, whatever it may be, can have a significant impact, silencing or giving confidence to other victims.

Part of the debates focuses on the public perception that Daschbach has had support from some individuals in Timor-Leste, namely two former Presidents of the Republic, Xanana Gusmão and Taur Matan Ruak, the latter current prime minister.

Judicial sources indicated to Lusa that Xanana Gusmão was even listed as a defence witness, among a range of people, most of whom were linked to the orphanage where the crimes were committed.

In 2018, for example, after confessing his crimes to the congregation – the Vatican was beginning the process that would end in his expulsion from the priesthood -, Daschbach was visited by Taur Matan Ruak and his wife, Isabel Ferreira, at headquarters SVD in Dili.

Ex-priest’s return to Oecusse
A visit in which, explained Yohanes Suban Gapun, SVD regional supervisor, Taur Matan Ruak had asked them to let the ex-priest return to Oecusse.

“Mr Taur Matan Ruak and his wife came to visit us and spoke to Daschbach. I was also asked if I would please let him return to Oecusse because many people like him there and still respect him a lot. Please let him go to Oecusse too because he is old and let him die there in peace,” he said.

Asked by Lusa in 2019 about the reason for this visit, Taur Matan Ruak said he did it out of respect.

“I had no intention of passing the priest an immunity card. Just as a human being, out of respect, we visited to find out what was going on and to express our concern about the issues,” he said.

Even more evident has been the support given by former President Xanana Gusmão, which began to be publicly noticed in October last year when Juu’s, which represents the victims, introduced a precautionary measure against the Archdiocese of Dili, to stop the publication of a controversial report on the case prepared by the then head of the Justice and Peace Commission.

Xanana Gusmão, who was outside the Dili Court with an organised demonstration in support of the diocese, was listed as a witness because a copy of the report had been given to him and because he later sent a copy to Juu’s.

In his testimony, the Timorese leader ended up deviating several times from the audience’s purpose, questioning the fact that there were accusations against the former priest only recently, despite the fact that he had been in Timor-Leste for a long time.

Justice ‘has to be fair’
“There has to be justice, but justice has to be fair, obey procedures, criteria that dignify justice itself. I realised that there was something in this case that was not in accordance with the rules of investigation”, he told Lusa at the time.

More controversial was the recent visit that Xanana Gusmão made to the house in Dili where Daschbach was under house arrest, at the time of the defendant’s birthday, and about which he informed some East Timorese press, later distributing a statement that was practically published in full in several newspapers .

The visit led the ex-president’s three children to write letters to the alleged victims, regretting that their father visited Daschbach.

The news coverage of this visit drew criticism from the president of the Timorese Press Council, Virgílio Guterres, who considered that the news in the national press tried to “whiten” the former American priest.

Xanana Gusmão has so far not reacted to the controversy, but on Thursday he traveled with an entourage to accompany Daschbach on the ferry that took him from Dili to Oecusse.

Mateus Assunção Mendes, chief superintendent and commander of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL), confirmed to Lusa that Xanana Gusmão, Daschbach and the rest of the delegation are staying at the same hotel in Pante Macassar, capital of the enclave.

“Yes, they are in the same place,” he confirmed.

Lusa tried several times to talk to Xanana Gusmão, without success.

Little Timorese media attention
Another factor that has conditioned the environment around the case has been the reduced attention of almost all Timorese media, which, in some situations, has even been accused by the Press Council of trying to “whiten” Daschbach.

Exceptions are the publication Tempo Timor, the first to report the case of the former priest and who has already presented testimonies of victims and details of the case, and Néon Metin, which has also written about the case, including recently publishing testimonies of victims.

José Belo, the journalist for Tempo Timor who, with journalist Tjistske Lingsma, first reported the case, tells Lusa that it has been difficult to convince people to talk about the case.

“It is very difficult to convince people to speak. When planning interviews, everyone prefers to remain silent. Some people look at this man as a god,” he told Lusa.

The trial, which takes place behind closed doors, begins today at the Oecusse Court in Pante Macassar.

PNTL plans to install a security perimeter around the building.

This article has been translated by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent and is published with permission.

A report has detailed shocking levels of physical violence and neglect towards millions of Pacific Islands children, sparking calls for better-targeted aid programmes from countries like New Zealand and Australia

The report team, from combined aid agencies, investigated child-rearing practices in seven Pacific countries, as well as Timor-Leste.

The report found as many as four million children experience violence at home across the Pacific – a staggering 2.8 million in Papua New Guinea alone.

READ MORE: Phil Fitzpatrick: PNG’s Kramer ‘crucial’ law and order change maker

More than half of all sexual violence referred to medical clinics involves children in PNG, where almost one in three parents report beating children “as hard as they can”.

The research also outlines a range of factors that contribute to the abuse, including Pacific societies with high levels of gender inequality; social acceptance of physical punishment of children, weak governance, and growing poverty and inequality.

The report’s authors said the research shows the critical lack of overseas aid invested in programmes aimed at ending violence against children, and programmes by countries like New Zealand and Australia need to be more targeted.

Carsten Bockemuehl, World Vision’s advocacy campaigns lead for the Pacific, said the study painted a “pretty bleak picture” of regional and donor governments that had failed to prioritise children’s rights.

“It’s a massive development issue that is really negatively impacting on children and societies as a whole,” he said.

Around 0.1 percent of all Australian foreign aid to the Pacific and Timor-Leste in 2017 was directed to programmes specifically addressing violence against children, according to aid group Save The Children, which claimed just $US2.3 million was spent in total by all foreign donors “on this critical issue”.

Bockemuehl said violence against children will make societies less prosperous and will exacerbate risks to health and criminal justice systems and that there needed to be a “rebalancing” of aid priorities in the Pacific.

“It’s actually an economic issue, it makes countries poorer, so that’s why, out of the many competing priorities in developing countries, we just advocate for violence to be recognised as a critical development issue.”

• This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Papua New Guinea’s Police Minister Bryan Kramer has used social media to arrest a man accused of sexually abusing his granddaughter.

Kramer wrote a Facebook post in which he described being notified of a post about a young girl being sexually abused.

“On Sunday I received a notification on Facebook that Wilfred Kepui mentioned my name in a comment. When I clicked on the notification it took to me to a post by Remase Hariwa (real name Augustine Pouru),” Kramer wrote.

READ MORE: PNG police minister to use social media to keep citizens safe

Pouru’s post claimed that a 7-year-old girl was being sexually abused and pleaded for someone to help her as local police were unable to.

“The mother reported the abuse to Gordon’s Police Station only to be told by the officer at the counter that police did not have any fuel,” Pouru wrote.

“I am tagging my mainstream media friends, Scott Waide, Sylvester Gawi, Erbiri Zurenuoc so we can be her voice and bring justice to this innocent little girl. Child abuse is real.”

When Kramer was tagged in a comment under the post, he contacted Pouru to find out the names of the girl and her mother.

Although Kramer wasn’t able get the information, the following day he passed Pouru’s contact details to National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’Dranou.

“An hour later, with the assistance of Gordon’s Police and Mr Pouru taking time off work, we [were] able to locate the mother and little girl who is actually 5 years of age,” Kramer wrote.

“Police arrested her grandfather, I then contacted a friend to have the mother and her daughter placed at Bel Isi Safe Haus to ensure she received urgent medical treatment.”

“Following the interview of the mother it was discovered two other girls living with them were also victims of sexual abuse.”

Kramer wrote that he thanked Pouru for bringing the issue to his attention.

The post follows Kramer’s announcement that he would be using social media to address police issues and help protect Papua New Guineans.

“Two weeks ago, straight after being sworn in as Minister for Police I explained to the press that I intended to run a social media program where the public would be able to directly get in touch with me to raise their concerns about policing issues, an initiative focused on making it safer for mums and dads and their kids.”

“Yesterday’s incident is one such example of the changes to come. As promised you can expect sweeping changes in how our police address sexual violence and police brutality.”

“To avoid any doubt, I’m still very much committed to addressing high-level corruption, once I’ve had the opportunity to address the issues facing our police force I expect them to take the lead without political interference.”