# 51 Foreign Minister Julie Bishop turns a blind eye to the kidnapping of Cambodian girls by Citipointe church

Chita (left) and Rosa (right) during a rare home visit in 2013. Their mother, Chanti, is behind them, pointing.

James Ricketson

Europe Guest House

# 51, Street 136

Phnom Penh

015611478; 017 898 361

jamesricketson@gmail.com

The Hon Julie Bishop

Minister for Foreign Affairs

House of Representatives, Parliament House


Canberra ACT 2600                                                                          

4th April 2014

Dear Minister

Following on from my many previous letters.

Two days after my court case and after close to a day in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, I have managed to read the complaints lodged with the court on 4^th March 2013. This is not a typographical error. As with the other accusations made against me by Citipointe, this complaint has sat in a file at the courts for a year before being activated within a couple of days of the Global Development Group’s Executive Director writing the following to me:

We have thoroughly investigated your concerns and we can’t see any area where SHE Rescue Home has not adhered to their requirement of the ACFID Code of Conduct. Therefore a Code complaint cannot be made…. Global Development Group has copies of all the required documentation and has no problems with ‘SHE Rescue Home’.

How does this statement of Geoff’s square with the following from the Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs guidelines on alternative care for children: 

“The rights of parental authority over their children remain with the family unless it has gone through the courts and the family relinquishes all responsibility”.

This photograph of Rosa, taken a few months after she was illegally removed by Citipointe church in 2008, should have set alarm bells ringing in the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh, within AusAID and ACFID if they had been doing their job properly.

The question of the removal and detention of Rosa and Chita, for close to six years now, against the express wishes of their parents, has never been heard in a Cambodian court of law. Chanti and Chhork have not relinguished responsibility for their daughters. On the contrary, they have been asking for their return for five years.

By his own admission Geoff Armstrong has ‘copies of all the required documentation.’ This is a lie. Geoff does not have a copy of a document from any Cambodian court giving legal custody of Rosa and Chita to Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’. What Geoff does have is a copy of the 31^stJuly 2008 ‘contract’ that Leigh Ramsey tricked Chanti into signing with her thumb print. The circumstances surrounding the signing of this fraudulent document, alone, would see Leigh Ramsey in court for ‘illegal removal’ if the rule of law applied in Cambodia.

Chanti and Chhork's home in 2010. Chita (left), Rosa, next to her mum, Chanti, holding baby James.

In addition to this legally worthless ‘contract’, Geoff Armstrong has copies of the MOUs that Citipointe entered into with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The Global Development Group, along with Citipointe church, refuses to provide copies of these MOUs to Chanti and Chhork, to myself or any other person who has asked to see them. There is a simple reason for this. Both the Global Development Board and Citipointe know that the church has broken Cambodian law and are reliant on a corrupt judiciary to maintain custody of the girls illegally removed in 2008. The same applies for ACFID. Sam Mostyn and Marc Purcell (President and Executive Director respectively) either know that Rosa and Chita were removed illegally but turn a blind eye to the fact or, if they were doing their job properly, should know. I have repeatedly asked ACFID if, in the course of an investigation into Citipointe church’s removal of Rsoa and Chita, it would ask the church to provide copies of the MOUs. Both Sam Mostyn and Marc Purcell refuse to answer this question! Why?

Chita in her mum and dad's home in 2010. The Khmer Citipointe staff member who was supposed to 'supervise' the visit, left the girls unsupervised for a couple of hours!

And now you, Minister, along with Ambassador Alison Burrow, know that Rosa and Chita were removed illegally in 2008 (or should know if you were doing your jobs properly) and that for close to six years the girls have been held captive by the church in the absence of any legal proceeding that gives the church this right. Instead of calling in the Federal Police to investigate this kidnapping, DFAT gets Mignon Bleach to inform me, in an email, that: “your concerns have been noted.” AusAID has a duty of care for the recipients of Australian aid and has failed dismally in protecting Chanti and Chhork’s legal, moral and human rights; failed dismally in protecting the legal, moral and human rights of other clients of Australian NGOs.

It is not my ‘concerns’ that should be noted by DFAT, it is the kidnapping of Rosa and Chita by Citipointe that should not only be noted but acted upon. How much evidence do you need of NGO scams in Cambodia before you will act?

Chita (left) and Rosa (right) have been presented to the world, by Citipointe, as 'victims of human trafficking'. In reality, they are victims of the church's child-stealing scam - a scam knowingly endorsed and financed by Brisbane-based NGO, the Global Development Group (GDG), with the tacit approval of the Australian Council for International Development, the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

The judge who sentenced me in absentia was very reluctant to provide me with a copy of the complaint made against me by Citipointe but, after close to a day of arm-twisting, allowed me to copy it out by hand. Here it is:

I, Le-Anne Ramsey The representative of Citipointe International Care and Aid, located at XXXXX

The prosecutor submitted to Phnom Penh Court of First Instance

Suing Mr James Ricketson, born 1^st April 1949, Australian, holding passport number XXXXX – a filmmaker, whose address is uncertain in Phnom Penh of blackmail.

Referring to the subject mentioned above, I would like to inform the Prosecutor that Mr James Ricketson (James) has tried all his means to support and incite the mother of two girls named Kunthy Chita and Kunthy Rosa to get the two girls who are vulnerable children of human trafficking out of the NGO’s shelter in order to gain his personal interest. However, until today the Department of Social Affairs and Veterans has not allowed the NGO to reintegrate the two girls into their family because the status of the family still not good enough to secure the safety and education of the two girls with the intention to force the NGO to return the two children, this person has published in his blog to defame the NGO and disclose the identity or the two vulnerable children and their mother who was the trafficked girl. His acts are against the article 25.3 and 49 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in Article 25 and 49.  On 10/02/2013, this person sent an email to threaten me and the NGO to return the two children otherwise he will publish online the information which he has already prepared to defame the NGO. This threatening is a crime under article 372 of the Criminal Coe of Cambodia. So I would like the Prosecutor to charge Mr James Ricketson according to the law. Please accept my highest consideration. Made Phnom Penh on 1^st March 2013

Rosa's grandmother, Vanna, lost all 8 of her children  during the Khmer Rouge years (1975 - 1979) to starvation and illness. She lost her only two grand-daughters to Citipointe church! Chanti, born 7 or so years after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge, is Vanna's only surviving child out of nine.

The March 2013 date is not a typographical error. These absurd allegations, along with the others made at around the same time (‘hindering’, ‘profiting from prostitution’), have sat on file at the Phnom Penh Municipal court until such time as Citipointe and the Global Development Group needed to use them - in the hope of intimidating me into silence about their child-stealing and evangelical scam in Cambodia. Pastor Brian Mulheran’s letter of Feb 2013 was a warning shot across the bow. When I refused to be intimated, Citipointe attempted to use the Cambodian legal system to silence me. That Citipointe will not sue me in Australia speaks volumes of the church’s real agenda here and its lack of moral scruples.

Vanna was devastated by the loss of her grand-daughters to Citipoint church's evangelising and money-raising scam but, like Chanti and Chhork (mum and dad) she has no voice  in the world inhabited by Citipointe and other NGOs whose ignorance and arrogance blinds them to the fact that Cambodian mothers and grandmothers love their daughters and grand-daughters as we privileged members of the planetary aristocracy do.

The content of Le-Anne’s ‘blackmail’ Complaint is not worthy of a detailed response but I would like to point out that Rosa and Chita were never victims of human trafficking. Nor was Chanti ever a victim of human trafficking. Le-Anne Ramsey is lying.

For some time now I have thought of Lee-Anne Ramsey as a compulsive liar. I now think her to be a pathological liar. Her lies and the soft core thuggery of Pastor Brian Mulheran are actively supported by the Global Development Group. Both should have their tax-deductible status revoked and an independent investigation be conducted into how Citipointe and the GDG have managed to breach AusAID guidelines an the ACFID Code of Conduct. As I have mentioned in a previous letter, ACFID should not be involved in such an investigation as it too is complicit in turning a blind eye to the human rights abuses that occur on a daily basis in Cambodia and, it is my guess, in other 3^rd world countries where faith-based NGOs use AusAID approved tax-deductible funds to break up families and proselytize.

best wishes

  James Ricketson

No words are necessary here.

# 50 3rd April 2014. The moral cowardice of Ambassador Alison Burrow

Ms Alison Burrow

Ambassador to Cambodia

Australian Embassy

16B, National Assembly Street

Sangkat Tonle Bassac

Lhan Chamkamon,

Phnom Penh, Cambodia                                                                                 

3rd April 2014

Dear Ambassador

Further to my letter to you of yesterday, 2^nd March.

Second Secretary & Consul Mignon Bleach’s response, yesterday, is brief and to the point:

“On behalf of the Ambassador, your concerns have been noted.  Should you request consular assistance, the Embassy stands ready to assist you in accordance with the Consular Services Charter.”

In the language of diplomacy this means, “Yes, we received your letter and will ignore it.” This comes as no surprise to me.

It is abundantly clear that there is no moral principle that the Australian Embassy will stand up for – be it protesting the illegal eviction of its neighbours by City Hall or the illegal removal of Cambodian children by Australian-based NGOs.  You, as Australia’s Ambassador, refuse even to ask of Australian based NGOs, in receipt of AusAID approved funds, that they abide by Cambodian law and the ACFID Code of Conduct.  This may well be in accordance with the ‘Consular Services Charter’ but it is a form of moral cowardice and, in a country with no effective rule of law, leaves unscrupulous Australian NGOs free to act as they please.

The second email of the day from Mignon Bleach (your #1 spin doctor, it seems) was to let me know that:

 “At 2pm in Hall No. 1 today, the result of the trial that was held on 12 March 2014 for which you were absent will be announced.  The charges  were under Article 372 & 373 of the penal code.”

Alas, this email arrived after the court had delivered its verdict (2 year suspended jail sentence and $1,500 fine); after I had spent the morning in a stiflingly hot court building (with no electricity) speaking with two judges about my case and, finally, being provided with a copy of the summons that was never delivered to me; after I had been told by the second judge that I would be hearing from the court on one of the two phone numbers I gave him regarding my case. How and why I was sentenced at 2pm after my extensive conversations with two judges would be a mystery to me if I were not in Cambodia!

Not that it is of any interest to you,  Citipoiinte alleges that I threatened to defame the church. Not that I did defame the church but that I threatened to do so! I wonder if there is any country in the world other than Cambodia in which it is possible to get a two year jail sentence for threatening to defame someone! Given that I have repeatedly accused the church of stealing Rosa and Chita, along with a lot of other girls, Citipointe could have cut to the chase and sued me for actual defamation. Perhaps the church did not take this obvious step because this (and the previous charges brought against me by the church) were not intended to secure a conviction but to intimidate me into leaving Cambodia!

The one positive thing to emerge from yesterday’s discussions with judges is that I now have two ways of using the Cambodian legal system to force Citipointe to provide Chanti and Chhork with copies of the MOUs that you, Ambassador, refuse to request of either Citipointe church or the Global Development Group. You are, from a moral point of view, an accessory to the human rights abuses they have perpetrated in Cambodia.

best wishes

James Ricketson

# 49 2nd April letter to Alison Burrow, Australia's Ambassador to Cambodia

James Ricketson

Europe Guest House

# 51, Street 136

Phnom Penh

015611478; 017 898 361

jamesricketson@gmail.com

Ms Alison Burrow

Ambassador to Cambodia

Australian Embassy

16B, National Assembly Street

Sangkat Tonle Bassac

Lhan Chamkamon,

Phnom Penh, Cambodia                                                                                 

2^nd April 2014

Dear Ambassador

Following on from my letter to you of 3^rd March.

This morning I will appear in the Phnom Penh Court to be sentenced in relation to Citipointe’s latest attempt to have me, to quote the church’s Pastor Brian Mulheran, ‘forcibly removed’.

As you know from previous correspondence, I received no summons or warrant notifying me that court proceedings were to occur on 14^th March.  I was in Australia at the time. Since my return to Cambodia to appear for sentencing today it has not been possible for me to find out what accusations Citipointe has leveled at me other than what I have read in the newspapers – namely that I have ‘blackmailed’ the church. The Phnom Penh court will not provide me with any information, despite my having written two letters to the court and made two personal visits to it. Citipointe church will not tell me, despite several written requests to the church this past 10 days.

Your Embassy has been of no use either. At midday yesterday I wrote to Mignon Bleach, Second Secretary & Consul, asking the following question:

“Could you please, as a matter of urgency, find out what I have been charged with and why no summons or warrant were ever delivered to me? Could you please find out what evidence Citipointe church has provided in support of the allegations that I threatened to 'blackmail' the church?”

Mignon’s response, at 4.49 pm was:

“If you wish for the Embassy to seek information from officers of the court regarding your current legal status, we will require your full consent to the disclosure of relevent personal details about you and information concerning your situation and/or whereabouts to representatives or our contacts of the court.”

The court was due to close in ten minutes.

At midday 1^st April I also wrote, to Mignon:

 “Nor has the Embassy done anything to acquire, from Citipointe church and/or the Global Development Group a copy of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs which, according to Citipointe and the Global Development Group, gave the church the right to remove and detain Rosa and Chita in 2008. It is abundantly clear that no such MOUs exist. This fact, were it to be known to the court tomorrow, would result in the case being thrown out. Why does the Embassy not ask for copies of the MOUs?”

I have asked Foreign Minister Julie Bishop several times for assistance in securing copies of the MOUs. I have received no response from her office.

At midday yesterday, 1^st April, I was very specific in my request:

“Could the Australian Embassy please, at this last minute, acquire from Citipointe or the Global Development Group copies of the MOUs and any other documents relating to the removal of Rosa and Chita and forward these to me before the end of business today. In this way I will have something to present to the court - along with my recommendation that Citipointe be charged with illegal removal and detention of Rosa and Chita.”

I have been alerting the Australian Embassy for five years now to the fact that Citipointe church illegally removed Rosa and Chita from their family in 2008 and detained them against the express wishes of their parents. The same applied for the parents of other girls illegally removed by the church at the same time – crimes for which Pastor Leigh Ramsey, Rebecca Brewer and Helen Shields could be jailed for two years if there were any rule of law in Cambodia. The Australian Embassy has made no effort this past five years to secure from Citipointe evidence that the church had a legal right to remove the girls. The legality or illegality of the church’s actions can only be determined by looking at, reading, the 2008 and 2009 MOUs that both Citipointe and its funding partner the Global Development Group (GDG) claim gave the church the right of removal.

The Australian Embassy clearly does not see its role as in any way monitoring the activities of Australian-based NGOs – not even when there is clear evidence that they are in breach of Cambodian law; in breach of AusAID rules and of the Australian Council for International Development Code of Conduct. The Australian Embassy, in turning a blind eye to these breaches and to the breaches of the human rights of parents like Chanti and Chhork, has given fraudulent NGOs such as Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ a green light to steal children. And now, having discovered how easy this is to do right under the noses of Embassies, of AusAID, of ACFID, Citipointe is exporting the church’s evangelical child stealing model to India – to be financed with tax-deductible Australian dollars! The church and its backers, the Global Development Group must be laughing all the way to the bank.

You can no longer claim ignorance of what is going on, Alison. You Have ample evidence at your disposal to, at the very least, insist that Citipointe produce evidence of the legality of the church’s actions in relation to the removal of Rosa and Chita. If you do no, you are, from here on in, personally implicated, by turning a blind eye, by asking no questions, by failing to insist on being provided with copies of MOUs, in Citipointe’s crimes in Cambodia.

In 2009, before your time, there was a whole community of materially poor Cambodians living next door to the newly built Australian Embassy. They were known as the Group 78. When it became clear that they were to be evicted by City Hall and their land stolen from them by rich and powerful cronies of the Prime Minister, as has happened for countless thousands of Cambodians, the Australian Embassy said nothing. There were no voices of protest raised. No support at all (not even moral) was provided to the community and one morning armed police and sledge-hammer wielding thugs arrived to destroy the community. I was there to film it. You can view what I shot here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmyWzWnc-SQ

Today, what was once a community, is now a vacant lot, home only to weeds. In this vacant lot there could, today, be a thriving community made up of those whose homes were destroyed by City Hall in 2009 if the Australian Embassy, along with others in the international donor community, had insisted upon it. The problem is that Australia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not insist on anything. Under both Labor and Liberal governments Australian tax-payers prop up the Hun Sen dictatorship to the tune of $100 million a year in foreign aid. No Minister of Foreign Affairs has had the guts to say to him, “This money is to alleviate poverty, to improve education, to help stamp out corruption, to aid in the protection of those few natural resources that have not yet been stolen. And we expect the Cambodian government to abide by its own laws and not kill peaceful garment factory workers etc.”

No, Australia attaches no conditions at all to the delivery of $100 million in aid. The message that Australia sends to the Hun Sen regime is, “Do what you like. It is your country and far be it for us to interfere with the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. You want to steal the land and homes of your own people, no worries! You want to intimidate and kill your own citizens, hey, none of our business, this is your country. You want to allow fraudulent NGOs to come to your country and steal children well, we’d rather you didn’t allow this but don’t worry, we are not going to say so publicly. And if one such NGO wants to use a corrupt judicial system to jail a critic of these child-staling scams, fear not. We will, of course make a few carefully worded public statements about the ‘rule of law’ and ‘due process’ etc but we will not criticize the government. Promise. Now how much money do you need this next financial year?”

Each year, after the international donor community has paid half of Cambodia’s bills and got nothing in return Hun Sen and his cronies must think all their Christmasses have come at once! “After all these years Australia and other international donors continue to prop us up and are prepared to accept the same vague promises of reform we have been making this past 20 years.”

Mignon also wrote to me yesterday:

“Should you find yourself in police custody or another situation which requires consular assistance in accordance with the consular services charter, please do not hesitate to contact the Embassy.”

Given that the Australian Embassy could provide no support when I was lying on the road being guarded by six police intent on stealing my phone, what possible ‘assistance’ could the Embassy provide me if I were in police custody? The support I have needed this past five years was in relation to Citipointe church’s having stolen Chanti and Chhork’s daughters. The support the Group 78 community required back in 2009 was for its neighbours, the Australian Embassy, to stand up for its right to live in its homes on land that it was entitled to live on in accordance with Cambodian law.

If and when I am in police custody there will be nothing the Embassy can do and, to be frank, the Embassy is the last place I would go to for any form or support. If you wish to provide real support you can, this morning, obtain from Citipiointe church and/or the Global Development Group copies of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs. If they did not give the church the legal right to remove Rosa and Chita in 2008 you can issue a Press Release to this effect. If the church refuses to provide you with copies of the MOUs you can issue a Press Release to this effect. If this occurs before I am sentenced it might give the judge reason to pause before imposing whatever sentence he has in mind.

best wishes

James Ricketson

# 48 On the eve of my sentencing in Cambodia for 'blackmailing' Citipointe church!

Rosa and Chita's brothers - James and Kevin
- and sister Srey Ka

Dear Foreign Minister

It seems you have decided that the best way to deal with my letters regarding Citipoint’s illegal removal of Rosa and Chita in 2008, is to ignore them. That Citipointe refuses to provide documented evidence of the legality of its actions in 2008, in the form of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs, seems to be of no concern to you at all.

You have thus provided Citipointe with a license to steal two other girls from their materially poor families when Citipointe returns Rosa and Chita to their family this week. Yes, this week. Citipointe is now desperate to offload Rosa and Chita as fast as possible. This sudden change of heart coincides with at least one member of the international media calling Citipointe and asking for copies of the MOUs.

The church clearly hopes, with Rosa and Chita back with their family by the end of the week, that DFAT, AusAID, the Australian Embassy and ACFID will ask no questions about the MOUs and it will be back to business as usual. Not just in Cambodia but in Goa, India – the next destination on Citipointe’s soul-saving list.

The only thing that could thwart Citipointe’s plans, this April Fools Day, is if I receive a custodial sentence in court tomorrow. The Australian media may not care about Christian NGOs stealing brown-skinned children, but a fair-skinned Anglo Saxon being jailed for ‘blackmailing’ Citipointe church will be too juicy a story for the media to pass up; a story that will almost certainly lead at least one intrepid journalist to ask for copies of the MOUs and other questions relating to the legality of Citipointe’s activities in Cambodia. This could prove very damaging to Citipointe’s Indian child stealing, evangelical and money raising plans.

Given that Citipointe has clearly paid the Cambodian judiciary to bring whatever phony charges it can against me in hopes of silencing me or intimidating me into not returning to Cambodia, the church is confronted, broadly speaking, with two choices:

(a) See to it that I get a custodial sentence, as threatened by Pastor Brian Mulheran in his 21^st Feb 2013 letter to me, or

(b) Arrange with the Cambodian judge to find some way to find me guilty but not to sentence me in such a way as to attract the attention of journalists.

I suspect that Citipointe will opt for (b) but this is Cambodia and anything is possible. And if I do get a custodial sentence, what will you do, Minister? Bring in the spin doctors to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse? Or will you insist, in a very public way, that Citipointe make public the 2008 and 2009 MOUs and any other documents relating to the church’s removal of children from their families – paid for with tax-deductible Australian dollars.

Chhork, with sons James and Kevin - at about the same age Rosa and Chita were when Citipointe church stole them

Leigh Ramsey

322 Wecker Road

Carindale

QLD 4152

Directors of the Global Development Group Board

Unit 6, 734 Underwood Road

Rochedale, QLD 4123           

1^st April 2014                                                                         

Dear Pastors Leigh Ramsey and Brian Mulheran and

          members of the Global Development Group Board                                                                                        

You have all refused my multiple requests to be provided with copies of the MOUs from 2008 and 2009 that both Citipointe and the Global Development Group insist gave you the right to remove and detain Rosa and Chita against the express wishes , after Nov 2008, of their parents – Chanti and Chhork. You have likewise refused such requests from others, including media outlets. The reason? No such documents exist. You are, all of you, complicit in the illegal removal and detention of Rosa and Chita in 2008 and would, if Cambodian law were adhered to, be liable for at least two years in jail.

Rosa and Chita's father (Chhork), brothers Kevin and James, mother (Chanti, holding Poppy), sister (Srey Ka) and grandmother - Vanna

Instead, you have all been complicit in arranging for me to be charged in Cambodia with a variety of offences – the latest being, it seems’ ‘blackmail’. I write ‘it seems’ because I have never been served with a warrant or a summons and have no idea what evidence you have presented to the court in support of your allegations. My requests, as a matter of natural justice, that I be supplied with evidence in support of the allegations have fallen on deaf ears. As you know, and as you are taking advantage of, there is no rule of law in Cambodia, the judiciary is corrupt and no evidence is required to secure a conviction if you have deep pockets – which the Global Development Group certainly has with its $25 million a year war chest of tax deductible dollars.

Rosa and Chita have missed out entirely on the first 15 months in the life if their youngest sister, Poppy

Pastor Brian Mulheran’s letter of 21^st Feb 2013 was not, as I thought at the time, just the bluff and bluster of a Christian bully. He was deadly serious about having me arrested, jailed and banned from coming to Cambodia again. Such are the lengths that Citipointe and the Global Development Group will go to protect the scam you are conjointly engaged in. The scam is this: You use your money, your power, the lack of any rule of law in Cambodia and the lack of oversight by ACFID to remove children from their families and turn them into Pentecostal Christians. You do this with the tacit approval of the Australian Council for International Development and, it seems, judging by the refusal of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, with the tacit approval of the Department of Foreign Affairs also.

And so it is that Australian tax-deductible dollars are used to break up families, remove children and harvest their souls for Jesus Christ. That in doing so both the Global Development Group and Citipointe are in breach on the ACFID Code of Conduct is a matter of no concern to Executive Director Marc Purcell or President Sam Mostyn.

Srey Ka, James, Kevin, Chanti and Poppy in the family tuk tuk

Now, desperate to get rid of Rosa and Chita at all costs and as fast as possible, you have told Chanti and Chhork that you will deliver them tomorrow, 2nd April, to their home in Prey Veng. There will be no re-integration program. You hope to simply dump them in Prey Veng with their family and let Rosa and Chita cope, unaided, with the problems inherent of being taken from one environment (in which they have been indoctrinated for close to six years as Pentecostals) and placed in another – one in which the rest of the family are Buddhists. The lack of empathy, compassion and just plain old fashioned common sense on the part of GDG and Citipointe is astounding. And now Citipointe and the Global Development Group intend to export this money-raising and soul-saving scam to India. Right now, in Goa, there are young girls from poor families whose parents do not realize that the nice helpful Christians who are about to enter their lives are there to steal their children and harvest their souls for Christ. And the money used to run the ‘rescue homes’ for these ‘rescued’ Indian children will be paid for, via the Global Development Group, with Australian tax-dollars.

Kevin and Chanti, March 2014

A secondary reason for your attempt to deliver Rosa and Chita back into the care of their family tomorrow is that this is the day I will be sentenced. With Chanti and Chhork in Prey Veng they will not be in a position to tell the judge tomorrow that it is Citipointe and the Global Development Group that should be facing charges of illegal removal and not me facing whatever charges you have managed to conjure up.

Chanti and Chhork will not be in Prey Veng tomorrow. They will be coming to court with me. I wonder whether anyone from Citipointe will be present? I doubt it. You are cowards who would not dare to try and sue me in an Australian court in which you would be obliged, in support of your defamation suit, to provide evidence that you removed and detained Rosa and Chita legally in 2008. To have such a spotlight shone on your activities could prove disastrous to the child-stealing and forced indoctrination scams you are engaged in – paid for by the Australian tax payer.

An exercise in futility, I know, but here I go:

(1) Please provide me, today, (and to those to whom this email is copied) with copies of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs that Citipointe entered into with the Ministries of Foreign and Social Affairs.

(2) Please provide me with the evidence you claim implicates me in an attempt to blackmail Citipointe church and which will lead to my being sentenced tomorrow.

best wishes

James Ricketson

Chanti combs Srey Ka's hair in preparation for school