Mona Reeder / DMN
Hellen Alyek (left), police superintendent in Kampala,
Uganda, and Damalie Lwanga, a youth and sex crimes
prosecutor, toured the Dallas Police Department's child
exploitation squad at police headquarters Thursday.
Posted on 06/14/2003 6:25:34 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Women hope visit to Dallas will help battle violence in Uganda
06/14/2003
Hellen Alyek is trying to stop violence against African women and children.
As a police superintendent in Kampala, Uganda, she has hidden victims of abuse and torture – including those subjected to female circumcision – in her home to protect them.
She wants to do more.
For the last month, Ms. Alyek has teamed with police investigators in Dallas' Youth and Family Support Division to learn techniques that she can implement in her homeland to help those who need it most – women in remote, rural enclaves. She also wants to help open a shelter for women in her eastern African country.
"There are many tribes in Uganda. Some believe all the women should be circumcised. It's not a crime there. I'd like to see that change," said Ms. Alyek, 48, who pioneered the Child and Family Protection Unit for the Uganda Police Force. "Some women die during the mutilation. Some women go and hide. Tribal leaders are the people we need to target."
Ms. Alyek's visit to Dallas was part of an American Bar Association program aimed at helping African law enforcement professionals learn about the American juvenile justice system.
"We hope that they will get ideas that they can then bring back to their countries and implement improvements there," said Howard Davidson, director of the ABA's Center on Children and the Law in Washington. "This is not just a theoretical experience. It will lead to practical changes in their systems that will benefit children."
In Dallas, Ms. Alyek observed detectives handle abuse cases, toured women's and children's shelters and learned techniques Dallas police use to combat abuse, such as using trained professionals to question youths who have been victimized.
Ms. Alyek said that she has been impressed with the Dallas detectives – and the resources they possess.
"If they want to know if someone has a criminal record, they can find out with computers," she said. "Everyone in this unit has a computer. In my unit, [only] I have a computer."
Lt. Bill Walsh, supervisor of Dallas' Youth and Family Support Division, said hearing Ms. Alyek talk about conditions in her homeland makes him thankful.
"It makes us realize us how many resources we have at our disposal," Lt. Walsh said. "They [authorities in Uganda] don't have battered woman centers or the degree of specialization of detectives we have. They are dealing with a country that still practices genital mutilation."
Mr. Davidson said Dallas' prominence in working to combat child exploitation made it a natural choice for the program. Dallas authorities gained international acclaim after spearheading Operation Avalanche in 1999. The multi-jurisdictional investigation has resulted in thousands of arrests worldwide and ended the largest known online child pornography ring in the United States.
"In general, even before Avalanche, we've known of the department's prominence," Mr. Davidson said.
Lt. Walsh said he is pleased that Dallas was one of the cities the ABA chose as a host department.
"It affirms the work I know my detectives do every day," he said.
The Dallas County district attorney's office also is hosting a Ugandan criminal justice professional, Damalie Lwanga, a youth and sex crimes prosecutor. Other African professionals from Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania have been placed in Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Mich., through the ABA program.
Lt. Walsh said Ms. Alyek has absorbed much during her four weeks in Dallas.
"She's very knowledgeable and committed to the women and children of Uganda," he said.
Ms. Alyek, who has also traveled to Ethiopia, Canada and Australia to meet with law enforcement officials, said she wants to help open a women's shelter in Uganda.
Lack of money is the greatest stumbling block in starting a shelter for abused women and children in Uganda, Ms. Alyek said. But women would go, she said, if one were started.
"Some women are ignorant because they live in a remote location," Ms. Alyek said. "You have to go to them."
In Uganda, she said that child abuse detectives wear uniforms, whereas in Dallas, most work in plain clothes.
"We wear the uniforms so that the children will know who we are and know we're there for them," she said.
Email jtrahan@dallasnews.com
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