Ith Sam Heng
Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran
and Youth Rehabilitation
#788, Monivong Blvd.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia 18th
March 2013
Dear Minister
I am writing on behalf of Yem Chanthy and her husband Both
Chhork and their two daughters – Rosa and Chita.
Rosa and Chita live in Citipointe church’s She Rescue Home in
Phnom Penh. Yem Chanthy and Both Chhork have asked Citipointe church many times
in the past four years to return their daughters to their care. The church
refuses to do so.
On 31st July 2008 Citipointe church asked Yem Chanthy
and her mother Vanna to place their thumb prints on a document that they could
not read did not understand. No representative of Citipointe church
counter-signed the document but 11 days later, on 11th August 2008,
Rebecca Brewer from Citipointe church, informed Yem Chanthy that the document
she had signed gave Citipointe church the right to hold her daughters – Rosa
and Chita – until they were 18 years old. The document that Yem Chanthy placed
her thumb print on contains no term that gives Citipointe this right.
Between 11th August and November 2008 and up until
November 2009 Citipointe church refused Yem Chanthy and her husband Chhork’s
many requests that Rosa and Chita be returned to the family’s care. Citipointe
church insisted that it had a legal right to hold the girls – based on the
document Yem Chanty and her mother had signed with their thump prints. My legal
advice is that this document does not represent a contract that is in
accordance with Cambodian law.
For four years Citipointe church has refused to provide Yem
Chanthy and Both Chhork with copies of any and all legal documents it has in
its possession that relate to the removal of their children by Citipointe
church. Specifically, these are agreements that Citipointe church claims it has
entered into with the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ministry of
Social Affairs.
In the absence of access
to these alleged legal documents it is my belief that that
between 11th August and November 2008 (at least) Rosa and Chita were
victims of human trafficking in accordance with Article
8 (Definition of Unlawful Removal) of Cambodia’s Law on Suppression of Human
Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.
In
the five years since Citipointe church took control of the lives of Rosa and
Chita Citipointe church has done nothing to help this very poor family – a
family that now owns a house in Prey Veng and has a father (Both Chhork) who is
a tuk tuk driver.
Yem
Chanty and Both Chhork wish to move to their home in Prey Veng with all of
their children in time to celebrate the Cambodian New Year next month and
I
ask your Excellency to please investigate and resolve this matter as urgently
as possible.
yours
sincerely
James
Ricketson
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