Pastor Brian Mulheran
322 Wecker Road
Carindale
QLD 4152
4th March 2014
Dear Pastor Mulheran
I am writing in relation to an article that appears in this morning’s ‘Cambodia Daily’, dated 4th March 2014. I will quote from it:
“In an email to a reporter in May, Citiponte Executive Pastor said the church was adhering to its memorandum of understanding with the government and all relevant government directives.”
Do you, Pastor Mulheran, believe that the parents of girls removed in accordance with such a memorandum of understanding have a right to be given a copy of it so that (a) they can know why their daughters were removed, (b) what their rights as parents are and (c) what they must do to get their daughters back?
Chanti, Chhork and I have been asking Citipointe church for a copy of this memorandum of understanding for five years now; for copies of any and all agreements and/or contracts Citipointe church has entered into with Cambodian authorities that give your church the rights it has exercised. What possible reason can you have for withholding these from Chanti and Chhork?
Please supply a copy of these documents, today, to Chanti and Chhork (with me in Phnom Penh) and all of those to whom I am copying this letter. If you do not, I trust that members of the media will ask you why you refuse to allow Chanti and Chhork to have copies of them. They might also ask why it is that in the past five years your church has not given $1 to help this family become self-sufficient.
My second question for you today, Pastor Mulheran, is this:
“Is Geoff Armstrong a member or parishioner of Citipointe church?”
My third question:
“Did you or Pastor Leigh Ramsey inform Geoff Armstrong on or before 24th Feb 2014 that I was to be charged with ‘hindering’ Citipointe in its efforts to ‘help prostitutes’? If so, how did Citipointe come to be in possession of the contents of the court document two days before it was presented to me stamped with the date 26th Feb?”
This question is particularly pertinent this week in light of my impending arrest. On 21st Feb 2013, in a letter to me, you issued a scarcely veiled threat to have me ‘forcibly removed’ . You wrote:
“Using the law is the last thing that we want to see happen, because for you to be convicted of a crime and serve a sentence may mean that you will never have the opportunity to re-enter Cambodia again.”
It is statements such as this that give mafias of all different kinds their deserved reputation for intimidation. I will leave it to others to interpret your comments of 21st Feb.
If Citipointe has decided to ‘arrange’ to have me arrested and convicted and banned from coming to Cambodia, surely you could have thought of a better crime than ‘hindering’! Even in Cambodia I think it would be difficult for a judge to find me guilty of ‘hindering’.
If you have ‘arranged’ to have the charge of ‘hindering’ brought against me you can also arrange for the charge to be dropped because I can assure you I will not be attending any meeting with the police later this week under the circumstances that prevail at present. If Judge Pu Povsun wishes to issue an warrant for my arrest, so be it.
Whilst a Brisbane based church stealing the children of materially poor Cambodians may not be ‘news’ (they are, after all poor, dark skinned and Asian!) the arrest of a white Anglo Saxon Australian on charges of ‘hindering’ will be news. I will quite happily be arrested if this leads to the media and the relevant regulatory authorities in Australia asking Citipointe to justify its removal of Rosa and Chita in 2008 and its continued retention of them in March 2014.
That Citipointe’s illegal removal of Rosa and Chita should happen with the tacit approval of the Global Development Group, disbursing $25 million a year in tax-deductible Australian aid, will certainly raise serious questions in the minds of donors when the circumstances surrounding my arrest lead them to read my Global Development Group blog:
And parishioners of Citipointe may have cause to think twice about donating to the church when they realize that, through the ‘SHE Rescue Home’, their donations and sponsorship monies are being used to break up families and indoctrinate children into the Christian faith. They will be able to find out how this has come about by visiting:
best wishes
James Ricketson
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