LilMtnCbn
02-04-2005, 06:32 AM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Tears-as-brokers-ply-grim-trade-in-orphan
s/2005/02/04/1107476804458.html?oneclick=true
Tears as brokers ply grim trade in orphans
February 5, 2005
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Email to a friend Printer format
Inside looking out ... a child in the nursery of the Sayap Ibu orphanage in
Jakarta.
Photo: Rachel Donnan
Indonesia is mismanaging its abandoned and homeless, writes Deborah Cameron.
First they organised 25 new cots, 20 nurses and a fleet of cars. Then, in a
convoy with the police, they drove to a big cream-coloured house in Jakarta
where, upstairs, the babies were kept.
The youngest was two weeks old and the eldest was an eight-month-old girl
called Daisy. It was the contest over Daisy that triggered the drama and has
exposed the extent of illegal adoption in Indonesia, raising deep concerns
about the country's ability to manage its orphaned and abandoned children.
Revealed in the wake of the raid - the biggest ever - is the story of an
Australian couple now fighting to keep a three-year-old girl whose adoption has
been ruled illegal. Their next step is an appearance before Indonesia's high
court.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta has warned adoptive parents about poor legal
advice.
Those with first-hand experience of adoptions in Indonesia describe a chaotic
melting pot where well-meaning foreigners want to rescue children from poverty,
where brokers offer babies for sale, where the true history of children is
changed, where religion matters more than welfare, where corrupt officials look
the other way and where the best interests of the child are the lesser
consideration. For many, heartbreak is just around the corner.
The Australian couple arranged to get their child about two years ago and she
went to live with them in Jakarta, where they worked.
After what seemed like a proper process the adoption papers were signed by a
judge. It was only when the family tried to return to Australia with the child
that a fraud was uncovered. Their lawyer, who ran a hostel for babies, is now
under arrest in connection with breaking adoption laws and the couple are
petitioning Indonesia's high court to cancel the adoption so as they can start
it over again, a process that could take two years.
Indonesia's adoption laws are strict and clear but designed to flatly
discourage international adoption. Adoptive parents must live and work in
Indonesia for two years, be married for five years and, because of a change in
the law two years ago, have the same religion as the child.
Because most of the Western couples pursuing international adoption are
Christian and most of the babies being offered are Muslim, law-abiding
orphanages such as Sayap Ibu or Mother's Wing cannot help them.
"This has only promoted illegal adoption," said Mary Binks, an Australian who
steers foreign couples through Indonesia's complex procedures.
"The law change has pushed foreigners into the hands of the illegal
traffickers."
The case of Daisy, who was the subject of the November raid, contains an
element of everything that is wrong with adoption in Indonesia, say those who
follow it closely.
Daisy was promised to two sets of parents. Both couples are American and one,
believing the child was to be spirited away to Singapore, went for advice to
Sayap Ibu. Suspicions were immediately raised.
Atie Subiyanto, who works at Sayap Ibu, went to the house posing as a
prospective parent. After a second undercover approach, this time by
Indonesia's Department of Social Affairs, the police convoy was arranged.
Today, aged 10 months, Daisy can toddle from one set of open arms to another.
She appears in the doorway of the orphanage nursery that is now her home,
hanging onto a nurse for balance.
In the room behind her are 23 other babies, some making their first attempts at
standing up by holding onto the rungs of their cots. They, and a 25th child
still in hospital recovering from pneumonia, are now in the legal custody of
the Sayap Ibu orphanage.
Their previous home was shut down and the woman running it, Sri Mendagi,
arrested. Mendagi, who was a source of children for foreigners, liked to say
that she could get them "fresh from the oven".
She always had newborns available and it is believed that police are
investigating whether she paid kickbacks to hospitals that sent infants. She
also had connections at village level.
The police investigation into Mendagi is going slowly because she is ill and
has not been co-operative, people familiar with the case say. Until it is
completed the children involved cannot be fostered out or adopted.
In the background, but so far not facing charges, are a small group of American
benefactors, long-time residents of Jakarta, who paid the rent and raised money
for the home.
The American women believed in the cause and used their wealthy network to
generate donations and a roster of volunteers to help orphans. A side-effect of
this was that they introduced would-be adoptive parents who came into their
circle.
One of the couples involved in the wrangle over Daisy is said to have "fallen
in love" with her during one of the child's swimming pool visits.
Their dream ended when a couple, resident in Singapore but frequent visitors to
Jakarta, offered a high price for the child.
There has been no suggestion that the private American donors were directly
involved in a racket or had bad intentions.
Of the children now given refuge at the Sayap Ibu orphanage, none has the
documents that are needed for overseas adoption, a director of Sayap Ibu, Rin
Tjiptowinoto, said.
Mrs Tjiptowinoto believes that private brokers are at work in Indonesia
bringing together wealthy couples from Western countries who want to adopt and
poverty-stricken women who cannot bring up their own children.
Her feeling is supported not only by the recent arrests but also by a fall in
the number of children being surrendered to Sayap Ibu, a charity that receives
most of its funding from Indonesian sources.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
s/2005/02/04/1107476804458.html?oneclick=true
Tears as brokers ply grim trade in orphans
February 5, 2005
Page Tools
Email to a friend Printer format
Inside looking out ... a child in the nursery of the Sayap Ibu orphanage in
Jakarta.
Photo: Rachel Donnan
Indonesia is mismanaging its abandoned and homeless, writes Deborah Cameron.
First they organised 25 new cots, 20 nurses and a fleet of cars. Then, in a
convoy with the police, they drove to a big cream-coloured house in Jakarta
where, upstairs, the babies were kept.
The youngest was two weeks old and the eldest was an eight-month-old girl
called Daisy. It was the contest over Daisy that triggered the drama and has
exposed the extent of illegal adoption in Indonesia, raising deep concerns
about the country's ability to manage its orphaned and abandoned children.
Revealed in the wake of the raid - the biggest ever - is the story of an
Australian couple now fighting to keep a three-year-old girl whose adoption has
been ruled illegal. Their next step is an appearance before Indonesia's high
court.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta has warned adoptive parents about poor legal
advice.
Those with first-hand experience of adoptions in Indonesia describe a chaotic
melting pot where well-meaning foreigners want to rescue children from poverty,
where brokers offer babies for sale, where the true history of children is
changed, where religion matters more than welfare, where corrupt officials look
the other way and where the best interests of the child are the lesser
consideration. For many, heartbreak is just around the corner.
The Australian couple arranged to get their child about two years ago and she
went to live with them in Jakarta, where they worked.
After what seemed like a proper process the adoption papers were signed by a
judge. It was only when the family tried to return to Australia with the child
that a fraud was uncovered. Their lawyer, who ran a hostel for babies, is now
under arrest in connection with breaking adoption laws and the couple are
petitioning Indonesia's high court to cancel the adoption so as they can start
it over again, a process that could take two years.
Indonesia's adoption laws are strict and clear but designed to flatly
discourage international adoption. Adoptive parents must live and work in
Indonesia for two years, be married for five years and, because of a change in
the law two years ago, have the same religion as the child.
Because most of the Western couples pursuing international adoption are
Christian and most of the babies being offered are Muslim, law-abiding
orphanages such as Sayap Ibu or Mother's Wing cannot help them.
"This has only promoted illegal adoption," said Mary Binks, an Australian who
steers foreign couples through Indonesia's complex procedures.
"The law change has pushed foreigners into the hands of the illegal
traffickers."
The case of Daisy, who was the subject of the November raid, contains an
element of everything that is wrong with adoption in Indonesia, say those who
follow it closely.
Daisy was promised to two sets of parents. Both couples are American and one,
believing the child was to be spirited away to Singapore, went for advice to
Sayap Ibu. Suspicions were immediately raised.
Atie Subiyanto, who works at Sayap Ibu, went to the house posing as a
prospective parent. After a second undercover approach, this time by
Indonesia's Department of Social Affairs, the police convoy was arranged.
Today, aged 10 months, Daisy can toddle from one set of open arms to another.
She appears in the doorway of the orphanage nursery that is now her home,
hanging onto a nurse for balance.
In the room behind her are 23 other babies, some making their first attempts at
standing up by holding onto the rungs of their cots. They, and a 25th child
still in hospital recovering from pneumonia, are now in the legal custody of
the Sayap Ibu orphanage.
Their previous home was shut down and the woman running it, Sri Mendagi,
arrested. Mendagi, who was a source of children for foreigners, liked to say
that she could get them "fresh from the oven".
She always had newborns available and it is believed that police are
investigating whether she paid kickbacks to hospitals that sent infants. She
also had connections at village level.
The police investigation into Mendagi is going slowly because she is ill and
has not been co-operative, people familiar with the case say. Until it is
completed the children involved cannot be fostered out or adopted.
In the background, but so far not facing charges, are a small group of American
benefactors, long-time residents of Jakarta, who paid the rent and raised money
for the home.
The American women believed in the cause and used their wealthy network to
generate donations and a roster of volunteers to help orphans. A side-effect of
this was that they introduced would-be adoptive parents who came into their
circle.
One of the couples involved in the wrangle over Daisy is said to have "fallen
in love" with her during one of the child's swimming pool visits.
Their dream ended when a couple, resident in Singapore but frequent visitors to
Jakarta, offered a high price for the child.
There has been no suggestion that the private American donors were directly
involved in a racket or had bad intentions.
Of the children now given refuge at the Sayap Ibu orphanage, none has the
documents that are needed for overseas adoption, a director of Sayap Ibu, Rin
Tjiptowinoto, said.
Mrs Tjiptowinoto believes that private brokers are at work in Indonesia
bringing together wealthy couples from Western countries who want to adopt and
poverty-stricken women who cannot bring up their own children.
Her feeling is supported not only by the recent arrests but also by a fall in
the number of children being surrendered to Sayap Ibu, a charity that receives
most of its funding from Indonesian sources.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
