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| Rosa and Chita's brothers - James and Kevin - and sister Srey Ka |
The Hon Julie Bishop
Minister for Foreign Affairs
House of Representatives, Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
28th March 2014
Dear Minister
I have, this morning, attended Phnom Penh court with my Case Number – provided to me by Pastor Brian Mulheran. Brian has not, however, provided me with any indication of what I wrote and when I wrote whatever it is that the church considers to be ‘blackmail’.
The court has informed me that the evidence is no longer relevant since I have already (on 14th March) had an opportunity to respond to the church’s accusations. That I did not know that there was a court case on (no summons, no warrant), that I was in Australia at the time, is a matter, I have been informed, for my lawyer to take up with the judge before sentencing.
The court has informed me that the evidence is no longer relevant since I have already (on 14th March) had an opportunity to respond to the church’s accusations. That I did not know that there was a court case on (no summons, no warrant), that I was in Australia at the time, is a matter, I have been informed, for my lawyer to take up with the judge before sentencing.
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| Rosa and Chita's father (Chhork), brothers Kevin and James, mother (Chanti, holding Poppy), sister (Srey Ka) and grandmother - Vanna |
I will not have a lawyer, I will be representing myself, I informed the court. It is not possible, I was informed. “In Cambodia you must have a lawyer.”
With or without a lawyer I will be attending court on 2nd April but will not be participating in any legal proceeding in the absence of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs. If these MOUs point to Citipointe having acted in accordance with Cambodian law in removing Rosa and Chita, the church may have the makings of a ‘blackmail’ case. If the MOUs do not, there is no case to answer and Citipointe should be charged with ‘illegal removal’.
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| Rosa and Chita's sister, Srey Ka, whom they only get to see rarely during visits supervised by church personnel |
(I have searched through my correspondence from April 2013 in search of evidence of my attempt to ‘blackmail’ Citipointe and the closest I have been able to come up with is a series of questions I asked of Pastor Leigh Ramsey – to be found at: http://citipointechurch.blogspot.com/2013/04/21-of-many-questions-that-citipointe.html)
In order to avoid bad publicity for Citipointe (my being convicted of ‘blackmail’ on 2nd April) the church is moving with lightning speed now to get Rosa and Chita back to their family. After five years of refusing to implement any re-integration program, the church now, it seems, wishes to bypass such a program and dump the girls back with their family as soon as possible - in the hope, perhaps, that the question of the legality of the church’s removal of Rosa and Chita in 2008 will magically disappear. Then, free of any scrutiny, accountable to no-one and with both AusAID and ACFID asleep at the wheel, the church will be free to fill Rosa and Chita’s beds with two other girls from materially poor families – two more souls to be harvested for Jesus Christ; two more girls the church can present to donors and sponsors as ‘victims of human trafficking’ or at risk of same. The breakup of these girls’ families and their enforced conversation to Christianity will be financed, through the Global Development Group, with tax-deductible Australian dollars.
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| Rosa and Chita's mum and dad with (from left) Kevin, James, baby Poppy and Srey Ka |
Returning Rosa and Chita to their family with unseemly haste would be a big mistake. This would be obvious to anyone with professional experience in child welfare, child protection and the complexities of re-integration after six years of Pentecostal indoctrination.
On 12th March, in a letter to the Global Development Group and Citipointe church, I included the following re re-integration:
…Citipointe and GDG can, of course, proceed down the path of intimidation if you so wish. Who knows, you may even find a Judge prepared to put me in jail and so fulfill your prophesy, Brian. This will only serve to draw maximum attention to Citipointe’s illegal removal and detention of Rosa and Chita in 2008. In many way, though I do not particularly wish to find myself in a Cambodian jail, my incarceration would, at least, make this story newsworthy and you would all find yourself being asked a whole range of questions that you would prefer not to answer by print and TV journalists.
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| Rosa and Chita have missed out entirely on the first 15 months in the life if their youngest sister, Poppy |
An alternative path to go down would be, in the most gracious way possible, with whatever saving of face your respective spin doctors can conjure up, to admit that you have, separately and in unison, broken Cambodian law by illegally removing Rosa and Chita from their family and abrogated the human rights of Chanti and Chhork’s entire family. You could acknowledge this and return Rosa and Chita to their family and that would be the end of it. Chanti and Chhork want nothing more than to get their daughters back.
Here is how it could happen with a minimum of trauma for Rosa and Chita:
(1) Rosa and Chita leave the ‘SHE Rescue Home’ and take up temporary residence in a non-denominational NGO home of some kind that has no affiliation with Citipointe.
(2) A sensible re-integration program is formulated by professionals experience in the complexities inherent in re-integration with the best interests of Rosa and Chia in mind.
(3) Over a period of a few months Rosa and Chita are (a) allowed visits to their family in Prey Veng and (b) their bothers, sisters, mother and father are allowed visits to them in the non-denominational NGO in which they are now residing.
(4) This process of gradual re-integration is monitored and adjusted to take into account unforeseeable problems by professionals who know what they are doing.
(5) As this gradual re-integration process is taking place a second dwelling is be built on Chanti and Chhork’s property in Prey Veng. There is room for a second house and I will pay for the construction of it so that Rosa and Chita can have some of the personal privacy that I imagine they are accustomed to in the ‘SHE Rescue Home’.
(6) During this gradual re-integration process I will be looking into the various options open to Rosa and Chita to guarantee that they get a high quality education. This is a goal that I wish for all of Chanti and Chhork’s children. Srey Ka, James and Kevin are, at present, attending a private school in Prey Veng at my expense because the school in their village is not adequate to provide them with a good education.
It may well be that the only way that Rosa and Chita can get a high quality education is by going to a school in Phnom Penh. If so, I am in a position to pay their school fees and their boarding fees if necessary.
(7) Only when the re-integration process has achieved the above-mentioned goals should Rosa and Chita be returned to the full time care of their parents. This is not because Chanti and Chhork are anything other than good parents. It is an acknowledgment that the re-integration process will throw up problems, challenges, that must be met with the best interests of Rosa and Chita at heart.
Given the heartache that Citipointe church and the Global Development Group have caused Chanti, Chhork, Rosa and Chita, I think it appropriate that both NGOs compensate the family. My suggestion is as follows:
(a) A trust fund be set up by Citipointe and GDG to pay for the education of all of Chanti and Chhork’s children.
(b) This trust fund should be administered by a completely independent NGO with no affiliation with GDG, with Citipointe or with myself. It’s sole aim would be to pay legitimate school and university fees into the future. If, for whatever reason, any of the 6 children drop out of school, the family receives no compensation for their education.
(c) If all 6 children go on to university their fees are paid for by GDG and Citipointe.
I stress, I will not and should not be involved in any way with the administration of this trust fund. And nor should GDG or Citipointe. It is imperative that the NGO controlling the funds is totally independent of all of us.
The fine tuning of the above suggestions will take some time but are achievable if there is a will, on the part of all parties, for some variation of them to be put into practice to see Rosa and Chita are re-integrated back into the family in the most appropriate way; in a way that minimizes the traumatic impact of their being taken out of the world that they have lived in for close to six years and returned to the world of their family (nuclear and extended), the world of their community and the world of their Buddhist culture and religion.
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| Rosa and Chita's dad - a non-drinking, no-smoking, non-gambling gentle man who adores his children and whose heart has been broken by the loss of his two eldest daughters. |
If both Citipointe and the Global Development Group agree to the broad outlines of what I am suggesting here, perhaps the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) could play the role of independent arbiter – with the intention of guaranteeing the well-being of Rosa and Chita and with no regard at all for the vested interests of Citipointe, of the Global Development Group or myself.
I await your response to this letter with interest!
I received no response to this letter from either Citipointe or the Global Development Group. The entire letter can be found at:
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| Srey Ka, James, Kevin, Chanti and Poppy in the family tuk tuk |
I am not an expert in either child welfare or re-integration so it may be that some of what I have suggested above is impractical or misconceived. I will certainly defer to those with more experience in these matters than I have. If the re-integration of Rosa and Chita back into their family is not handled with sensitivity by experienced professionals, great harm could be done to both girls and, by extension, the entire family.
Given that the illegal removal of the girls has been perpetrated with the tacit approval of AusAID, I believe it would be appropriate for AusAID to do all it can to see to it that an appropriate re-integration program is instituted by qualified professionals. Such a program should be laid out in writing so that everyone involved in the delicate process is aware of their rights and responsibilities – Chanti and Chhork, Citipointe church, the Global Development Group and myself.
best wishes
James Ricketson
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| Rosa and Chita's healthy and very happy youngest sister, Poppy |
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