# 72 to Pastors Ramsey and Mulheran 2 days after the unannounced and unplanned return of Rosa and Chita, dated 30th May 2014

Pastors Leigh Ramsey and Brian Mulheran

322 Wecker Road

Carindale

QLD 4152                                                                                          

30th May 2014

Dear Pastors Ramsey and Mulheran

I had no choice but to cancel my flight back to Australia; to stay in Cambodia to try, as best I can, to help with the emotional mess your church has created. Both Rosa and Chita are in shock at the sudden and unannounced transformation in their lives. Chita is quite traumatized. She has been in tears for much for the past 18 hours and has slipped into what could best be described as a form of catatonic depression. One day she was living in a Christian institution in Phnom Penh, with a secure lifestyle and a group of friends; the next she is dumped in a materially poor village with a family that was given no warning at all of their impending arrival. How could Citipointe be so lacking in even a basic understanding of child psychology and of the effect so rapid a transformation would have on an 11 year old girl who has spent more than half her life in an institution?

It is now close to six years since Citipointe illegally removed Rosa and Chita from their home, using the sham 31^st July 2008 ‘contract’. And then, on 28^th May 2014 representatives of your church arrive at Chanti and Chhork’s village with Rosa and Chita and present the parents with an equally sham ‘contract’ for them to sign. Fearing that this may be their only opportunity to get their daughters back, Chanti and Chhork sign a document which, as with the 2008 ‘contract’ has no legal validity.

Citipointe’s dumping of the girls, unannounced, is compounded by the pathetic nature of your church’s parting gift to Rosa and Chita (and the family) – one 50 kilo bag of rice and 2 second hand bicycles. The combined value of these would be less than $100.

When I have done what I can to smooth the transition for Rosa and Chita from institutional living to village life I will put all of my effort into securing copies of the MOUs that both Citipointe and the Global Development Group insist gave you the right of removal and detention. If, as seems to be the case, the Australian Council for International Development refuses to ask for copies, I will pursue this matter in an Australian and/or international court and in other ways available to me now that the custody question has been resolved.

I again ask, as Chanti and Chhork’s legally appointed advocate, that Citipointe church immediately produce copies of the 2008 and 2009 MOUs. I am copying this to various individuals in a position to insist that Citipointe produce the MOUs and to others who could well ask the question and draw their own conclusions as to why Citipointe refuses to produce them.

Please do not think that the return of Rosa and Chita is the end of this matter. It is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Your church will now trick some other parents into giving up their daughters and the pattern will be repeated, both in Cambodia and in India, until someone in a position to do so puts a stop to Citipointe’s child-stealing scam.

best wishes

James Ricketson