26939: Arthur (reply and news) Re: 26937 Re: 26918: Sex slavery costs Leth his post (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
http://tinyurl.com/7jlcj

October 5, 2005


Allegations of sex slavery could cost Haitian consul his post

Celebrated film instructor and author risks losing his title as
honorary consul in Haiti after publishing a book describing hash
smuggling and sex with his housekeeper's daughter

One of Denmark's most celebrated intellectuals, author, film
instructor, and cycling enthusiast Joergen Leth, stands to lose his
post as honorary consul in Haiti after publishing a revealing
autobiography detailing his sexual exploits and career as a hash
smuggler.

In his book 'The Imperfect Human', 68-year-old Leth describes his
sexual relationship with the 17-year-old daughter of his Haitian
housekeeper, which he describes as 'his right' as her master.

Other revelations include his smuggling of 46 kilograms of hashish to
Denmark in the 1960s.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called Leth in for a meeting
about the revelations, but administration chief Hugo
Oestergaard-Andersen declined to comment on the consequences the case
might have for the veteran documentary filmmaker.

'The book contains information that is new to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs,' Andersen said. 'If it is correct, and if it had been known
at the time of his appointment in 1999, he would not have been
granted the title.'

Leth, whose experimental documentary films and role as a television
announcer during the annual Tour de France bicycle race have turned
him into the darling of Denmark's intelligentsia, caused a stir when
he published the book describing his sexual relationships with
several women.

The book contains photographs of him having sex with his current
Haitian teenage lover, and his upcoming documentary will feature them
having intercourse.

'I take the cook's daughter whenever I want to,' Leth wrote in his
book. 'It is my right. I can have her any way I want. She takes off
her clothes in 'the master bedroom', while her mother prepares the
dinner or irons my shirts in the courtyard.'

He goes on to graphically describe her physique, and how she kneels
by his bed while she waits for him to decide how to have sex with her.

A number of politicians have reacted by asking Minister of Foreign
Affairs Per Stig Moeller to explain Leth's merits as honorary consul,
or that he strip him of the title without further consideration.

'Denmark can simply not be represented by a man who exploits his
powerful position to demand sexual favours in a way we only recognise
from colonial times,' said the Socialist People's Party's MP Camilla
Burgwald. 'Leth has abused his position as a rich, white employer to
get sex from young Haitian women under slave-like conditions.'

Liberal MP Troels Lund Poulsen said he wanted the Foreign Ministry to
find out whether Leth's descriptions really were true, and said he
did not want to judge him before he had had a chance to explain
himself.

'My general opinion is that when one represents Denmark abroad, one
must behave in a civilised manner,' Poulsen said.