Paedophilia is rooted in Asian tradition, and some men's attitudes are hard to change, reports Ann McElhinney from Cambodia

I came to Phnom Penh to write about Western paedophiles. It is a story of fat, balding perverts from German cities, the English midlands and rural Ireland who travel to Cambodia to have sex with children, destroying innocence and bringing their depravity to a gentle people. It is also a story that combines our need for self-flagellation over the West's involvement in South-East Asia with the common belief that we thought up all things nasty.

The truth, however, is that sex with children is a very Asian vice. Yes, there are odious sex tourists in Cambodia, but they didn't introduce paedophilia to an innocent people. Sex with girls has been going on in Cambodia for centuries: the practice is part of the culture.

Chou Ta-Kuan, a 13th-century Chinese travel writer, chronicled the way sex with girls was made into a religious rite of passage. "Daughters of rich parents, from seven to nine years of age (or 11, in the case of poor people), are handed over to a Buddhist or Taoist priest for deflowering, a ceremony known as chen-t'an," he wrote.

Somaly Mam of Afesip, a French organisation that helps young women and children escape brothels, becomes angry as she talks about what still happens. Her ire is directed partly at the pimps who control the children - and have burned her house and threatened to kill her - but Mam is also angry with journalists who have interviewed her yet ignored what she said. "Yes, we do have sex tourists, but the sex tourism is a story for the journalists. It's not our main problem. Everyone says we have a problem with the sex tourism, but 90 per cent of the people having sex with children are local," she says.

"It's the Khmer" - Cambodians - "it's the Chinese, it's the Asian men, because they like the young girls. We have the tradition of the Asian men who like children . . . They say if they rape or sleep with a young girl, a virgin girl, they will get white skin and good luck and a long life. Sometimes businessmen, before they make a big deal, will buy a girl and sleep with her for good luck."

It is difficult to see how journalists have got it so wrong for so long. The people who look after the victims all tell the same story.

Bengt Juhlin of the United Nations' drug-control and crime-prevention office in Cambodia agrees that sex with children is an accepted custom. "What makes the headlines is Westerners, but it is a widespread phenomenon in Cambodia. It is a problem of tradition not just in Cambodia but in the region," he says.

"You don't have to go far in Cambodia or Laos, where men take a wife aged 12 or 13. They don't see this as an exception. I have lived in the region for many years, and in Laos or Vietnam the use of young girls is not seen as a bad thing."

Naly Pilorge of the Cambodian League for the Protection and Defence of Human Rights points out that health risks have exacerbated the problem. Asian men want to sleep with virgins, she says, but the risk of AIDS means they are looking for younger and younger girls with whom to have sex.

The recent high-profile arrests of foreign paedophiles and the deportation of Gary Glitter, the rock star and child pornographer, have added to the misconception that Westerners are the main problem in Cambodia. Western diplomats in Phnom Penh privately admit that they are deliberately exaggerating Westerners' involvement.

"We are pushing the Cambodian authorities to arrest Western paedophiles in the hope that it will embarrass them into tackling the local problem and eventually change attitudes," says one senior figure.

They accept, however, that Asian attitudes are so entrenched it will take enormous efforts to shift them. During the recent arrest of a foreign paedophile who had been caught with a young boy, the arresting officer explained why the authorities had intervened. "It was because it was a boy," he told a journalist. "I would never have arrested him had it been a girl."

Juhlin has seen other examples of official tolerance. "In places like Phnom Penh, you will not necessarily be seen as a bad person if you get caught having sex with young girls," he says.

Along the banks of the River Mekong in Kompong Chhang, three hours north of Phnom Penh, Afesip is trying to rebuild the broken lives of the children, the victims.

It's a peaceful place. Other than an occasional breeze fanning the lush grasses of the paddy fields, everything is still in the noon heat. The children, who range from seven to 18, are out at school when I arrive. When they return for lunch, in their pristine uniforms, they give the traditional Cambodian greeting, putting their palms together and bowing their heads. Two things surprise: their tiny stature and their seriousness.

Their stories are horrific. "That 12-year-old was taken from a brothel at Siem Reap," says Sao Chhoerth, Afesip's technical co-ordinator, pointing out a small girl playing idly with thread for a loom. "Her neighbour had sold her. She's an orphan. We brought her here because the brothel owner in Siem Reap is looking for her."

The price for a virgin girl is between $50 and $500 (€42-€420), depending on her beauty and the length of time the client wants to keep her. Afesip, which distributes condoms to prostitutes, contacts the police if it discovers children in a brothel. After a raid, the children come to Afesip for protection and help.

"Luk" sits on a mat in the Afesip centre's library, a study room with some schoolbooks. Her feet are curled under her tiny body. She doesn't smile. "I'm 13 years old," she says. "I have been here for . . . I don't remember how long. I like it because now I have a place for study, and I learn how to weave in the afternoon."

Caroline Bakker of Unicef, which funds Afesip, says the weaving is not so much vocational training as therapy. "One of the side effects of trauma is that you are disturbed; you have difficulty concentrating. Your mind is always flashing away. You have constant flashbacks; you have sad feelings suddenly coming up, which can be triggered by anything. This kind of activity is trying to get these children into a more normal way of concentrating," she says.

The girls have bodyguards, because there is always the threat that the pimps and brothel owners will come for them. Bakker says the work is always dangerous. "It is not always easy for organisations who are trying to protect those children and bring those cases to justice. There is a lot of money earned in sexual exploitation."

So Serey Vathana, a psychologist who works for Afesip, says trying to help the children is made even more complicated because they are so damaged. "Some girls are very angry and very aggressive. When they were in the brothel, the owners beat and abused them every day. So they have been very afraid."

It is when the children start to recover that the difficulties really start. "We explain to them what we do, and little by little they learn to trust. But when they feel safe, they become very aggressive. Some others are depressed: they don't want to talk, they want to forget. It hurts them too much to talk about the past."

Somaly Mam has visited Western conferences to explain how the problem is fuelled by local demand, but she is frustrated by "liberals" who insist prostitution is acceptable. "When I go in Europe, all the people say prostitution is normal, the oldest profession in the world. However, I tell them that it is not normal to have sex with a child," she says.

Somaly wants the West to acknowledge that this unsavoury side of Asian culture exists and has to be changed. "Please tell them about the local problem," she asks me. "We can change the Asian men. I believe and I hope we can change them . . . but it will take 100 years."