Khuon
Ranin
Ministry
of Social Affairs, Veteran
and
Youth Rehabilitiation
#
788 Monivong Boulevarde
Sanghat
Boeng
Trbek
Khan,
Chomkamon
Phnom
Penh
24th
Feb 2013
Dear
Khuon Ranin
On 21st Feb I received
a letter from Pastor Brian Mulheran of Citipointe church in which he threatened
to have me ‘forcibly removed’ and to initiate actions that would result in my
being arrested and jailed in Cambodia for crimes that he alleges I have
committed.
Pastor
Mulheran’s letter and my response to it can be found at:
The threat implicit in Pastor
Mulheran’s letter can be interpreted in one of three ways:
(1) It is just a crude form of
intimidation intended to scare me off; to prevent me from exposing Citipointe
church’s human rights abuses in Cambodia.
(2) Pastor Mulheran really does
believe that he is able to pick up the phone and make a request to your
Ministry that I ‘be forcibly removed’.
(3) Citipointe church has
established a relationship with your Ministry in which it is possible for the
church to arrange to have me ‘forcibly removed’.
I will not conjecture as to which
of these three is the case. I do, however, take Pastor Mulheran’s threats
seriously and suggest that if your Ministry is not in the habit of being
instructed by NGOs whom to arrest of trumped up charges, that you inform
Citipointe church that such intimidating behavior will not be tolerated by
yourself.
The premise upon which Pastor
Mulheran believes that Citipointe can have me arrested is that I have filmed
Rosa and Chita – the daughters of Chanti – and that these girls are ‘deemed’ to
be the victims of Human Trafficking. As you know full well, as your Ministry
knows full well and as Citipointe church knows full well (and his done for
close to five years), Rosa and Chita are not victims of Human Trafficking and
never have been. Citipointe church has chosen to describe them as such because
it suits their purpose in trying to intimidate me, using Cambodian law, in
ceasing production of CHANTI’S WORLD – a documentary record I have been working
on in Cambodia this past 18 years. I will not be ceasing production and if
Citipointe does manage to arrange for my arrest this will not impede the
progress of my film at all as all of the footage shot this past 18 years is in
Australia. The church is fighting a losing battle and, I would suggest, Pastor
Mulheran’s 21st Feb letter is a last ditch attempt to save the
church from extreme embarrassment when the film comes out. Citipointe church’s other reason for wishing
to present Rosa and Chita as victims of Human Trafficking is that it provides
the church with a great marketing angle. Presenting Rosa and Chita as victims
of Human Trafficking is much more likely to get sponsors and ‘poverty tourists’
to open their wallets and enrichen Citipointe coffers than presenting Rosa and
Chita as they are in reality – the daughters of poor parents.
I have suggested to the church
that a much more appropriate way to deal with the corner it has painted itself
into is to start making a contribution to helping the entire family. This is
what they claim is their intention on their website. This is what the church
has failed to do this last close to five years.
The only ‘crime’ I have committed
has been to help a very poor family over the years to the best of my ability.
The church claims that all its actions are legal and that it is only operating
within the guidelines set up and administered by your Ministry. Several
questions arise.
(1) Is it the policy of your
Ministry that the access of Rosa and Chita to their family (and vice versa) be
restricted to a few hours per month?
(2) Given the close bonds of love
that exist between parents and their children, what logic informs causing such
distress to both the parents and the children by so limiting their access to
each other? Has Cambodia learnt nothing from the Khmer Rouge experience when
the breaking up of families was part of their policy? We in Australia have
learnt a lesson in the disastrous impact that such a policy can have on both Aboriginal
children and their families.
(3) Does the Ministry condone the
practice whereby a Christian NGO such as Citipointe church forcibly converts
two daughters of a Buddhist family to the Christain faith. This is, after all,
against the law in Cambodia and show great disrespect for the official religion
of Cambodia.
(4) Why does the Ministry condone
Citipointe church’s refusal to allow Rosa and Chita to participate in any of
the Buddhist festivals or rituals with the rest of their family?
(5) Why does you Ministry condone
Citipointe church’s refusal to allow Rosa and Chita even to attend the wedding
of their aunt in Prey Veng the weekend before last?
(6) Why does your Ministry allow Citipointe
church to advertise itself on the internet as an organization dedicated to the
rescuing of girls who are victims of Human Trafficking when, by the church’s
own admission, only four girls currently resident in the She Rescue Home are
victims of Human Trafficking? That is four out of 25 or 16%.
(7) Does you Ministry believe it
to be appropriate that any of the girls resident in the She Rescue Home be used
by Citipointe church as tourist attractions? This question is particularly
pertinent in the case of the four girls who are genuine victims of Human
Trafficking. Why should these traumatized girls be subjected to having their
hair washed (see Citipointe website) each and every time a new group of
‘poverty tourists’ arrives in Phnom Penh. This humiliating practice is
indicative of the very low level of understanding that Citipointe has of the
emotional and psychological problems suffered by the victims of sexual abuse.
(8) Why does your Ministry allow
Citipointe to present itself as being committed to reintegration and to helping
entire families when, in the case of Rosa and Chita, the church has done
nothing in close to five years to even begin the reintegation process or to
help the rest of the family?
(9) Why does you Ministry allow Citipointe church
to present Rosa and Chita as victims of Human Trafficking when, as your
Ministry is well aware, they are and have been never been victims of Human
Trafficking.
(10) Could the Ministry of Social
Affairs please provide Chanti with copies of all legal documents that have been
drawn up between Citipointe and your Ministry since 2008. Such documents should
include the agreement Citipointe claims it had with the Department of Foreign
Affairs giving it the right to hold Rosa and Chita contrary to the express
wishes of their mother and father.
In relation to Pastor Mulheran’s
thinly veiled threats to have me arrested, jailed and banned from coming to
Cambodia, does Citipointe have such power over the Ministry that it can ask you
to accede to such requests? I sincerely hope that the answer to this is ‘no’.
In the interests of the human
rights of children I believe that it is time for ‘orphan tourism’ as it is
practiced by NGOs such as Citipointe be banned. This practice treats
children as a tourist attraction and is
an abuse of their human rights - particularly in the case of those girls who
are genuine victims of Human Trafficking. The fact that these NGOs make a
profit from this practice is exploitation in itself. As you will be aware, only
27% of the residents in Cambodia’s orphanages have no parents. Or, to put it
another way, 73% of the residents In Cambodia’s orphanages have at least one
parent. Why are these so called ‘orphanages’ not assisting the families of
these 73% financially – particularly given that it costs 8 times as much money
to support a child in an institution as it does to support them within their
existing family. Cambodia has replaced the ‘adoption’ business that flourished
late last century with an ‘orphanage’ business and there is no shortage of NGOs
(both international and Cambodian) prepared to cash in on it.
If it is your intention to have
me arrested could you please let me know on what charges so that I can seek
some legal advice?
best wishes
James Ricketson
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