Leigh
Ramsay
322
Wecker Road
Carindale
QLD
4152
7th
May 2013
Dear
Leigh
Following on from my letter to you of 4th
May – a letter that, like all of my letters, you have chosen to ignore.
I am in Phnom Penh now. Chanti and Chhork
have come in from Prey Veng to meet me and to bring me up to date on the latest
news regarding Rosa and Chita. And it is interesting news indeed.
Two representatives of Citipointe church,
along with a taxi driver, travelled from Phnom Penh to Prey Veng to visit
Chanti and her family in their new home. Rosa and Chita accompanied them.
Unless something has been lost in translation it seems that the two Citipointe
staff members were impressed with Chanti’s new home and could see no reason why
Rosa and Chita should not be returned to live with their family in it. Before a
final decision is made, however, Citipointe’s Phnom Penh staff have to check with
you – the Boss. The process of checking with you, however, may take a couple of
months.
The couple of months wait comes, of course,
as no surprise at all to me. Yet another stalling tactic on the part of
Citipointe in the vain hope that I will lose interest and leave Citiponte to
its own nefarious devices – with no interference at all from MOSAVY. How many
times, over the past close to five years, has Citipointe made such promises to
Chanti and Chhork- each and every promise being as hollow as the last and each
one breaking the hearts of the parents of the girls you stole. This is to be
expected of Citipointe. However, this is
not what is of interest here.
Both you and Pastor Mulheran (he who ‘sincerely’
does not want me to be ‘forcibly removed’!) have gone to great lengths to
explain to me over the years that the decision to either return or not return
Rosa and Chita to the care of their family is not Citipointe’s to make but a
decision to be made on the Ministry of Social Affairs. If this is so, then why
have Citipointe staff told Chanti that they are waiting on a decision from you?
If it is true that the decision is one to be made by MOSAVY, why was no MOSAVY
representative present when Citipointe inspected Chanti and Chhork’s new home?
I do not expect an answer to this question.
Citipionte has answered no questions at all this past close to five years –
relying as it does on an incompetent MOSAVY and a quiescent English language
press not to ask any questions at all.
You play God in all this – acquiring young girls to feed your money
making scam and then releasing them back into their communities and families
when it suits you.
It does seem as though there has been a
change of heart within MOSAVY – that there is a broom sweeping the organization
clean and demanding accountability of NGOs such as Citipointe’s She Rescue
Home. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new era in which NGOs will be held
accountable for their actions and not be allowed to behave as they choose with
total impunity – inducing the materially impoverished parents of young girls to
signing their daughters into the care of sham ‘orphanages’ and ‘Rescue Homes’
in much the same way as brothel owners do. It is to be hoped that Chab Dai and
LICADHO might also follow MOSAVY and start demanding transparency and
accountability from NGOs. Here is one question to add to my already long list
that Chab Dai and LICADHO might like to ask of Citipointe:
How many
sponsors are there for Rosa and Chita and how much money have they, this past
close to five years, contributed to the swelling of Citipointe’s coffers.
If neither Chab Dai nor LICADHO will ask
such a question, why? The same goes for the English language press in Cambodia?
Why does it go soft on Chab Dai and LICADHO and not demand of these
organizations answers to questions that go to the very heart of the efficacy or
otherwise of aid from the international donor community to Cambodia?
When I do meet with the police this week
there is really only one question I am interested in talking about and,
hopefully, getting an answer to. It is not my ‘version’ of events that is
relevant in this matter – as subjective as is Citipointe’s. It is my assertion,
my allegation, that Citipointe had no legal right, in mid 2008, to remove Rosa
and Chita from the care of their parents Chanti and Chhork. If Citipointe had
not entered into a legal contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between
31st July 2008 and 11th August 2008, I will ask the
police to charge Citipointe with kidnapping. If the police are reticent to do
so, I will ask why. That Citipointe was provided with retrospective permission
to have removed Rosa and Chita by MOSAVY 15 months later does not make
Citipointe’s actions legal. Indeed, tis retrospective permission raises the
questions of who, within MOSAVY, gave the church retrospective permission to
steal Chant and Chhork’s daughters and why.
As I am sure you have gathered by now, I
will not let this matter rest until Rosa and Chita have been returned to the
care of their family –along with appropriate restitution for the pain and
suffering caused to Chanti and Chhork (and Rosa and Chita) this past close to
five years as a result of what I allege to be the illegal removal of these
girls from the care of their family. If there is even one scintilla of truth to
Citipointe’s public assertions that it helps entire families (despite having
given no help to Chanti’s family this past close to five years) now is the time
to put your money where your mouth is and commit the church, in writing, to
precisely what Citipointe is prepared to do to help Chanti’s entire family over
the next five years. If the answer is ‘nothing’, so be it.
Finally, Leigh, let’s have no more of this
nonsense about the decision to return Rosa and Chita to the care of their
family being a decision to be made by MOSAVY. It is your decision and yours
alone and you should release the girls back into the care of their family
today. And if you are not prepared to do so you should give Chanti and Chhork,
myself, MOSAVY and the police investigating this matter a reason why.
best wishes
James Ricketson
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