Minister Peneux: “I would gun them down” Minister Van Dijk-Silos: “I want to castrate them”

PARAMARIBO - “People should thank God that I am not the minister of Justice and Police or else they would have been shot dead a long time ago,” said Education, Science and Culture Minister Robert Peneux at the opening of the Child Protection Alarm Center in Paramaribo South on Monday in response to the reports that a gang of paedophiles has been rounded up by the police.

Peneux pointed out that when people talk about men who sexually abuse little boys, people must also keep in mind that there are also older women who sexually abuse little boys. “We must also keep that in mind. God has created the human body in such a way that some people can’t control their urges,” said Peneux. Justice and Police (Juspol) Jennifer van Dijk-Silos pointed out that she is crueler and that she wants to castrate those people so that they can look at something that is no longer there for the rest of their lives. She explained that she wants those people to suffer mentally and to break down. Both minister expressed shock over reports that paedophiles were active on social media. Van Dijk-Silos pointed out that those sick adults seduced and abused children and most likely deliberately infected them with HIV. She also pointed out that it annoys her that young victims are treated as young criminals when they go to the police to report that he or she or being abused sexually. “This is what bothers and angers me which is why I want to organize training sessions. There are so many wrongs in this country that we ourselves tolerate. There are cases where children must swallow whole onions when they get an insufficient mark at school. Children are also being whipped with the chains of cars. In such cases the Public Prosecutor’s Office sends the children back to the same environment. The prosecution fails miserably in these cases. The institute that must protect children fails to protect them. I have said it time and again. We from Juspol must protect the children.” When the minister started a pilot project in the Amerindian village of Apoera, many people criticized her actions and some even claimed that there was no sexual abuse in the country. Meanwhile the minister has also started a Child Protection pilot project in the Coronie District and in Paramaribo South. “By establishing alarm centers one finds out that children are structurally being abused sexually in this country. I am a minister who sees where my own institutes are failing so that we can improve them,” said the minister who added that she wants better protection for children. She pointed out that even the Bureau for Legal Family Affairs does not protect children even though it has the law on its side to remove children from their homes. “They are playing games with alimony cases. Juspol has failed to take legal action aimed at protecting children.”