'They have a future'

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

Phnom Penh -

The moment we stepped outside our hotel in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, we were greeted with this offer.

Driver: Many, many, many girls.

Dateline: Many girls?

Driver: Yes.

Dateline: How young?

Driver: Young, maybe, uh,... 12.

Twelve year olds for sale? Sounds shocking, but when we arrived in this village called Svay Pak, we met a young pimp selling even younger girls.

Po: New girls, too much for you.

How young?

Po: Eight, eight.

Along with a human rights investigator, we followed the pimp through the village alleys into a room filled with kids.

Po: New girls, new girls.

Some so young they could be in kindergarten.

At one brothel after another, there were dozens of children -- all for sale.

This girl told us she's nine.

This one ten. Both said they knew how to perform oral sex.

And they gave us a price in U.S. Dollars.

Girl: One girl, 30.

Dateline: One girl 30, and two girls?

Girl: Sixty.

We also found foreign tourists visiting Svay Pak, but most weren't eager to tell us why.

Dateline: So what do you do down here chief?

Visitor: Um, I have a friend down, here to eat.

Dateline: Uh-huh.

Visitor: Uh.

Dateline: You come down to Svay Pak to eat?

Visitor: Um, no it's nice, just a nice area.

This American doctor did admit on hidden camera he came for sex -- not with the very young girls, but with teenagers.

Jerry A: I mean, 15, 16 and older. Maybe a 14-year-old might sneak in if you can't tell the age, but you know I don't take the little, the really little ones.

We were in Cambodia with Gary Haugen, a former federal prosecutor who runs a human rights group called the International Justice Mission.

Gary Haugen: This is the kind of brutal ugliness that is sort of hard to open your eyes to. But once you do, I think as a human being, you’ve got to take responsibility for it.

Haugen and his team devised a plan to rescue the children in Svay Pak and put the adults exploiting them behind bars. With pressure from the U.S. government, they persuaded the Cambodian police to take action.

We went undercover inside a brothel with the human rights investigators.

Robert: This is Lam and Viet, and Dao?

When the police raided...

(girl screams)

Dateline: It's okay. Be good girl. It's okay. It's okay.

Thirty-seven girls were rescued that day. Many were under the age of 10.

A dozen suspects were arrested. Four were convicted and given prison sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years.

Our report has had a far-reaching impact, not only in Cambodia, but a continent away in Vancouver, Canada.

In January 2004, police were investigating a complaint that a man named Donald Bakker had beat up a prostitute in this park and videotaped the crime.

Ron Bieg: The whole entire incident had been taped.

Chris Hansen: Videotaped?

Ron Bieg: Yes.

Even more disturbing, Vancouver police detective Ron Bieg told us that authorities found videotapes Bakker shot of himself on a trip in Asia of having sex with very young girls.

Chris Hansen: And we're talking about seven, eight, nine year old kids?

Bieg: Yes … We were blown away by it.

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