Dear Editor,

The letter from Kevin Charlebois titled "Rape and

Punishment" published in your last edition completely enraged me, to an extent

that the only way to calm myself is to write it down, to let him and other men

who have the same mind-set know how I feel about it.

What Kevin wrote

holds a personal grip to me. He carelessly points out that this14-year-old girl

is not a victim of rape but of common assault, and to my understanding he

believes no real harm has been done.

The reason why his words shook me is

because I have very close friends who are victims of rape, being a witness to

the amount of healing it takes to recover and the immense challenges they

endured to regain trust in men. Also, I feel that the women and men of CWCC, who

I am acquainted with, do not need someone like Kevin to tell them their daily

efforts are wrong and unjust. Their work is hard enough as it is.

Kevin,

why do you feel threatened? Are you the kind of man that throws your sexual

lifestyle in a frenzy as to completely become disconnected to decency and

respect for the opposite sex?

Why are you telling us, people of this

community, that those dedicated women and men of CWCC and the Phnom Penh Post

are not doing their job right? How come you are claiming that you know what

works within the Cambodian court system when you don't even live here?

Or

is it that you come here for "Special Trips" and over the years discovered the

"ways" in which things "work" within the courtroom and are

"satisfied"?

My hope is that you wake up from whatever illusion you are

living in. Seriously. I want you to see that men have the most important role in

transforming acts of aggression towards women and children into peace and

compassion.

We men need to be more responsible and mature about how we

conduct ourselves both physically, mentally and spiritually to others.

I

am not writing to preach to you, Kevin, I am writing to let you know how much

your words hurt me.

Before you whip more words out to degrade someone's

effort or disrespect the many victims of rape, think, just think beyond yourself

for just a split second and you will realize what a serious abuse it would be to

say such things.

Mark Crossland-Turgesen, Phnom Penh