Monger wrote:I remember my best friend as a kid taking part in organized protests in the streets, decrying the "lies" that had come out in a Japanese tabloid & was starting to make the major papers. She was instructed by her mother (a regional leader) to tell anyone who would listen that her & her friends were exceptionally well taken care of. She was maybe 13 & had been regularly raped. I was 7 & I was lucky.
I helped to burn books & internal literature, too, but copies of some of the worst material ("davidito" isn't) is out there if anyone in law enforcement cared enough to pursue it even a little. Then again, like Craven said, the literature alone has never been enough for anything.
I know several members who've changed their legal names...in the case I'm thinking of it was to be allowed back into a country after being blacklisted for reentry.
Australia now has laws permitting us to prosecute for sexual abuse of children committed overseas (because of the charming habit of some of our citizens of going on child sex tours in Thailand, and, no doubt, other places - and other such lovely stuff.)
If the will existed - and mebbe Interpol could collate stuff - I see little reason why some of these people could not be prosecuted - extradition from one country for crimes committed in another country happens all the time. I presume the deterrents are expense, time (most prosecution agencies are perennially overburdened), the difficulties of actually getting convictions (here, Public Prosecutions normally only proceeds with cases it thinks it has a reasonable chance of winning - though with adult survivors of child abuse I have seen them go out on a limb) and the damned reality that, generally, people's respect for kids' rights is in their mouths.
I imagine that, also, many of the countries in which the oiffences were committed may not have the sophisticated judicial system in relation to such matters as Oz and the US and the UK and canada and Europe have?
Another reason to be cautious would see tto be The Family's skill in making itself look like a persecuted religion.
I hafta say, too - that the emotional toll taken on abused folk by the horrible court process is immense. Personally, I grit my teeth and worry like hell whenever a client goes to court - (I almost can't bear to see it happen) - knowing that they will be viciously re-traumatised in a way that I am unable really to prepare them for, no matter how hard I try - and that they are unlikely to gain a conviction - something that nobody seems able really to believe - people expect justice, it seems.
But look - we had a couple of 90 year old concentration camp killers tried here a few years ago. If the system is pushed hard enough, it gives. They were found not guilty, though.
) when I was maybe 13 or 14 & he was a few years older. He leaves behind a wife & 2 young kids. I remember his sister China as an amazing dancer...I last saw her, unexpectedly, at a rave 2 years ago on new years eve night. Everyone in Japan mentioned in the article I've known personally...I hope they're coping alright.
