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, 2nd 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
 |
| Chita (left) & Rosa (right) with mum, Chanti, behind |
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