Leigh
Ramsay
322
Wecker Road
Carindale
QLD
4152
4th
May 2013
Dear
Leigh
For
some time Cambodian police have been wanting to interview me about my ‘version’
of how it was that Citipointe came to take full control of the lives of Rosa
and Chita in mid 2008 contrary to the express wishes of their parents. Why the
Cambodian police need to hear me vocalize my ‘version’ when there is a blow by
blow description on my blog of how this state of affairs came about I have no
idea!
Neither
my ‘version’ nor Citipointe’s ‘version’ of what took place in mid 2008 is of
much significance. What is significant is whether or not Citipointe had the
legal right to remove Rosa and Chita from their parents care in mid 2008. To
date neither Chanti nor myself has seen one document that relates to the
legality of Citipointe’s actions. The 31st July 2008 ‘contract’ is
worthless from a legal point of view so, unless, in early August 2008,
Citipointe had entered into a legally binding contract with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (which is what you assert to be the case) your church is guilty
of essentially kidnapping Rosa and Chita through deception, lies and by telling
me (and Chanti) that you were acting on the instructions of Chab Dai and
LICADHO. Since neither Chab Dai nor LICADHO have chosen to distance themselves
from your assertions and say that Citipointe is lying, I have to presume that
both Chab Dai and LICADHO were complicit in the removal of Rosa and Chita. This
raises a whole host of questions about both organizations and makes me wonder
how many other girls like Rosa and Chita have been recruited as ‘victims of
Human Trafficking’ by giving the parents food parcels, making them promises an
NGO has no intention of keeping and getting these materially poor and
illiterate parents apply their thumb prints to ‘contracts’ that they cannot
read and do not understand!
If
Citipointe’s removal of Rosa and Chita was not legal under Cambodian law you
and Rebecca should be charged with kidnapping and Citipointe expelled from
Cambodia. Even if you can produce legal documents relating to your removal of
Rosa and Chita in mid 2008 (which I doubt) your contemptuous treatment of
Chanti and Chhork and your failure to deliver on even one of the promises you
made to Chanti and myself in mid 2008 renders Citipointe a disgrace to the
Christian faith and an embarrassment to the NGOS community. Why the NGO
community tolerates NGOs such as Citipointe is a mystery to me. In the case of
Chab Dai it seems that this umbrella group will tolerate any behavior at all on
the part of Christian NGOs. As for LICADHO, I am speechless! What a toothless
tiger it is – unable or unwilling to take a moral stance on the removal of
children from their families by incompetent (and sometimes illegal) NGOs.
I
have asked countless times and so has Chanti for copies of ‘contracts’
Citipointe has entered into with the Ministries of Foreign and Social Affairs..
You have ignored all such requests. I have asked Chab Dai and LICADHO, both of
which organizations you have implicated in your removal of Rosa and Chita, to ask Citipointe to produce the documents
that prove the legality of the church’s actions Both Chab Dai and LICADHO
refuse to take any interest at all in this matter. I have asked the Minister of
Social Affairs several times to provide Chanti and myself with documents relating
to the legality of Citipointe’s removal of Rosa and Chita but he ignores my
letters and our requests. It is clear that in Cambodia, NGOs such as Citipointe
can do whatever they like with impunity; that NGOs such as Citipointe can
remove children from the care of their parents without anyone in Cambodia
taking the slightest interest in the legality of such removal.
I
will, in the next few days, come to talk with the anonymous police who want to
hear my ‘version’ (no one has the slightest interest in Chanti and Chhork’s ‘version’!).
My presence in Cambodia for the express purpose of talking to the police will
provide Citipointe with the ideal opportunity for the church to make good
Pastor Mulheran’s scarcely veiled threats to have me ‘forcibly removed.’ You
know where I stay when I am in Phnom Penh so if Pastor Mulheran really does
have the capacity to make a call and have me ‘forcibly removed’, here is the
church’s opportunity.
best
wishes
James
Ricketson
No comments:
Post a Comment