Leigh Ramsay
322 Wecker Road
Carindale
QLD 4152
Dear Leigh
Chanti, Chhork and I had a most
interesting meeting with LICADHO this morning. It emerged that Citipointe has provided LICADHO with two
reasons why Rosa and Chita cannot be returned to their family: (1) Citipointe
now considers Rosa and Chita to be members of the church’s family and would be
heart-broken to lose them and (2) The police have not yet completed their
investigation.
By ‘the police’ Citipointe means
the ‘Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department’ headed up by Mr
Lao Lin. When asked when the investigation will be completed, LICADHO was told
bluntly that Rosa and Chita will not be returned to their family. When asked to
provide a reason, the ‘Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection
Department’ refused to provide one.
One does not need to be a rocket
scientist to figure out what is going on here – especially in light of the fact
that the ‘Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department’ did not,
seven months ago, ask me one question pertinent to its supposed ‘investigation’
into the removal of Rosa and Chita and actively prevented me from providing
evidence in support of the proposition that Citipointe had removed Rosa and
Chita from their family illegally.
Another interesting fact to
emerge in this meeting with LICADHO this morning is that Chanti did sign, with
a thumb print, a second contract with Citipointe more than five years ago.
Chanti does not have a copy of it and has no idea what the terms and conditions
of it are. Rebecca made it clear in writing in 2008 that Citipointe intended to
keep Rosa and Chita until they were 18. Presumably, given that the 31st
July 2008 ‘contract’ carries no legal weight, it is this second contract that
Citipointe believes gives the church the right to retain custody of Rosa and
Chita contrary to their parents express wishes, articulated for five years now,
that the girls be returned to the family’s care.
I am now in a financial position
to commence legal proceedings against Citipointe in Cambodia. Two different
sets of proceedings, actually. The first will be to file a formal complaint
against the church and the ‘Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection
Department’. Regardless of any bribes the church may pay, Citipointe will be
obliged, in accordance with Cambodian law, to provide my lawyer with copies of
certain documents – some of which I have been asking for, as Chanti and
Chhork’s legally appointed advocate, for the past five years. Likewise, the ‘Anti
Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department’ will be obliged, in accordance
with Cambodian law, to provide its reasons for refusing to allow the return of
Rosa and Chita to their family. These
documents, once in the public arena, will make it abundantly clear that
Citipointe had no legal right to remove Rosa and Chita in 2009 or to keep them
this past five and a half years contrary to their parents’ wishes – at which
point the 2nd set of legal proceedings will commence.
best wishes
James Ricketson
cc Mr Lao Lin, ‘Anti Human
Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department’
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