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ASTI Director Interview in Malaysian Newspaper
The argument balances between the legitimate uses of the acid and therefore its availability, and the need to control or reduce the availability of acid in order to prevent attacks. ASTI Director Rick Trask takes the latter position in a recent interview with the Malaysia-based Star Online newspaper.
“There needs to be some kind of regulation. Right now, anybody can go down to a corner shop in some countries and buy it. Is it necessary to have bottles of very strong acid in your street corner shop?” he says.
The success of recent in public awareness initiatives around acid violence in the UK and abroad is helping to confront perceptions that acid attacks occur most often on the Indian subcontinent, in Bangladesh and Pakistan, for example. Many people assume that attackers are on the rampage to punish women for various behaviours.
In his interview Trask explains that attacks have more to do with the availability of acid than anything else and “are not linked to any particular culture, religion or country. It’s a global phenomenon.”
The premeditative aspect to these attacks, however, makes them particularly horrible. He explains, “Acid is not used in the heat of an argument. It’s pre-meditated and it’s about damaging people. The attacker is very aware of the disfigurement aspect.”
The article explains that while female victims outnumber men – ASTI’s 2008 annual review shows that more than half of the cases in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Uganda involve women and children – Trask explains that it is not sex but gender relationships that are the root cause.
He explains, “A good example is in Cambodia, where there are a number of cases in which one woman attacks another who is (or is perceived to be) a mistress. In other countries, a man attacks a woman because she has turned down his marriage proposal.”
ASTI’s model of rehabilitation is built around the survivor’s journey, so while it is certainly important to reduce the number of acid attacks, the immediate and ongoing care of survivors is equally important. Trask explains that these survivors need medical, psycho-social and community support and many of the legal cases can go on for years.
ASTI works closely with its partner organisations, or Acid Survivors Foundations (ASFs), in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda, Nepal and Pakistan, to provide aid for acid attack survivors. ASTI mobilises its specialist volunteers (surgeons, physiotherapists, and psychological, social and legal advocates) who train local practitioners to deal specifically in burns care.
In his interview, Rick Trask explained that, “Most survivors will undergo between 5 and 20 operations in the years following their attack, they have to undergo physiotherapy to exercise and stretch the skin, and need social and psychological support to overcome the trauma of the attack.”
The article also discusses ASTI’s focus on legislation and policies concerning acid attacks, and works with local police in some countries to bring about change, and Rick Trask explains that in many of the countries where ASTI works there are laws against such attacks but rule of law is weak and so those laws are often not enforced.
Read the full interview here.
Posted on June 09th 2010 by Office in Media coverage
