In spite of the fact that Casa Alianza has filed numerous complaints over the past years regarding illicit international adoptions, and despite its efforts to put national and international pressure on the Guatemalan government to institute laws that properly regulate adoptions, the illicit adoption trade continues to thrive. Unscrupulous attorneys are the central players in this trade, and they have converted what should be a noble institution, into a dirty business.

Recently, Casa Alianza successfully reunited two young girls with their mothers, after they had been taken away from them through a deceitful scheme that took advantage of the mothers' economic needs and naiveté.

A Story of Deceit and Corruption

The first case is that of Sandra Hernández, mother of Karla, a precious little two-year-old girl. Sandra was initially approached by Susana Duarte, who plays the role of an "intermediary" in the illicit adoption trade - the person who locates mothers who appear to be good targets for taking their children away through deceit. One day, Sandra had gone to the hospital because Karla was sick, and the doctor advised her that Karla suffered from lung problems. As she left the hospital Sandra felt depressed and hopeless, and that is when Susana appeared and invited her to have coffee and even offered her work at her house. Susana expressed concern for Karla's health, and she told Sandra she would put her in contact with Mireya de Gonzalez, an attorney who would provide economic help in order to cure the child's illness.

Sandra met Ms. Gonzalez at a restaurant in Guatemala City, at which time she signed a number of blank papers after being told by Ms. Gonzalez that they were needed to admit Karla into a medical clinic where she would receive treatment for her lung problem. During the same meeting, Sandra was given a false identification card. At this point, Karla had been taken away by Susana with assurances that she would be admitted to a medical clinic. Soon after this meeting, arrangements were made for Sandra to be taken to a laboratory for the purpose of extracting some blood, the purpose of which was, she was told, to help in the treatment of Karla. However, the true purpose was to satisfy the blood test required in international adoptions which establishes the identity of a child's mother. Another requirement that needed to be accomplished was to obtain certification of Karla's birth, and this was done through a bribe paid to a dishonest midwife who then filled out the needed paperwork.

Sandra later said that nothing was ever mentioned by anyone about giving her daughter for adoption. Yet, when she asked to see Karla to verify how the treatment was going, Susana and Ms. Gonzalez refused this request, telling her that she had no rights over her daughter because she had signed papers giving up those rights.

"I almost lost my baby for 25 cents."

The second case concerns 15-year-old Sonia who is the mother of Maria, 1-year-and-8-months-old, and who is a current resident in Casa Alianza's Young Mothers' Program.

Sonia went to Family Court and filed a complaint against Maria's father for child support payments. Feeling powerless at that moment in the face of this problem, she began to cry. It was then that she was approached by Susana Duarte, the same intermediary as in the case described above, who offered help for her daughter and gave her two quetzales (the Guatemalan monetary unit, worth about 25 cents U.S.) to buy a diaper. Susana then bought her a soda and told her to drink it in order to calm herself down. Sonia does not recall noticing any strange taste in the soda, but she became extremely sleepy after drinking it. At that point Susana offered to take her to her house. By the time they arrived at Susana's house, Sonia had fallen asleep due to the apparent drugging of the soda. "I didn't wake up until the following day, and at that time Susana told me that my daughter had become sick and she had taken her to a clinic, but that I shouldn't worry because she would take me to see her later", tells Sonia.

That same day, Susana took Sonia to the City Hall in order to obtain a new birth certificate for Maria, on the pretext it was needed for the medical clinic. Then Susana said it was necessary for Sonia to donate blood for Maria because she had become seriously ill, and she was taken to the same laboratory as in the first case above. The true reason for the blood donation was to establish that Sonia is Maria's mother, a necessary step in the adoption process. Susana also insisted that Sonia register Maria in the Civil Register of the town she was born in, even though Sonia advised her that Maria had already been previously registered. Susana then put Sonia in contact with attorney Mireya de González, who required her to sign blank documents, telling her that they were needed by the clinic.

Sonia began to feel uncomfortable with these events, and she began to feel hopeless because they did not take her to see her daughter. Finally, she went to her mother for help. Her mother called Susana who told her the "if you love the little girl so much, you'll have to claim her in court because she is being adopted."

Waiting for Justice

Both of the above cases were filed with the Court of Children and Adolescents by the District Attorney and by attorneys with the Casa Alianza Legal Program. The judge assigned to the case was Casta Liliana Castañeda Flores, who ruled that the two girls be returned to their mothers. In the case of Sonia, because she is a minor, she entered Casa Alianza'a Young Mothers' Community where she is receiving shelter, protection and care for herself and her daughter.

Casa Alianza attorneys petitioned the court to prosecute Susana Duarte and Mireya de González and their associates for the crimes of child kidnapping, falsification of documents and other violations of the law. On November 11, 2005, the Judge granted the petition and initiated prosecution against these persons.

Casa Alianza denounces the irregularities that take place in many adoptions in Guatemala, where children are unscrupulously separated from their parents, many times through taking advantage of the poverty of the mother and father. Adoption is a noble institution that permits homeless children to have a family and a home, but under no circumstances should the improper separation of children from parents, such as occurred in the above cases, be allowed. Casa Alianza urges (1) the National Congress to pass legislation to protect families from such abuses, (2) the National Attorneys Association to intervene where attorneys engage in unethical and illegal conduct, and (3) the Courts of Children and Adolescence to apply the full weight of the law on those who are found to have participated in unethical and illegal acts against children and their parents.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

comunicacion2@casaalianza.org.gt Tel. (502) 2433 9600

In his yellow striped pajama shirt and red shorts, Erwin looks no different from the other preschoolers in this state orphanage on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. But this four-year-old boy is at the center of an illegal adoption row that has led to the arrest of alleged child traffickers in Indonesia, a manhunt in Azerbaijan and a legal battle in Ireland's High Court.

The case has focused attention on the ethics of foreign adoptions in Asia, where thousands of children were orphaned by last December's Indian Ocean tsunami. In the aftermath, the US State Department blocked adoptions of tsunami victims, partly due to the risk of child trafficking.

Indonesia's tough rules on foreign adoptions, including religious compatibility, restrict the number of legal placements to less than 20 a year, a fraction of the number recorded in countries like China and Russia that offer fast-track adoptions. The lack of legal avenues may drive would-be parents to illegal brokers.

"Foreign adoption is the last resort. As long as we've got an Indonesian couple who want to adopt, that's preferred," says Afrinaldi, the deputy director of child welfare at the Social Affairs Ministry.

Erwin's story begins in July 2001, after his Indonesian mother gave him up for adoption. Using a broker, Irish accountant Joseph Dowse, who lived in Jakarta together with his Azerbaijani wife Lala and her daughter, adopted him. They told friends that they were bonding well with the curly-haired boy. In an undated studio photo, Dowse smiles as Erwin sits on his lap, flanked by Lala and her young daughter.

Two years later, say officials, Dowse drove to a private orphanage outside Jakarta and abandoned his adopted son. He never returned, and the family later moved to Azerbaijan. The decision to abandon Erwin came after Lala, who had earlier sought fertility treatment, discovered she was pregnant, according to officials and local media reports.

Because Erwin was registered as an Irish citizen, his case has triggered a legal row in Ireland.

Irish authorities have located Dowse in Azerbaijan and sought to annul the adoption. Dowse has reportedly refused to attend a High Court hearing due in October.

Tipped off about Erwin, Afrinaldi located the broker, a middle-aged woman called Rosdiana living in a Jakarta suburb, and posed as a buyer on behalf of a New Zealand couple. According to Afrinaldi, Rosdiana said she would find him a baby and boasted of 80 foreign adoptions since 2000. Prices depended on the customer, but would start from $7,000.

In July, Rosdiana was arrested along with her daughter on suspicion of child trafficking, document fraud and illegal adoption. Police are also hunting for an Indonesian-born American woman suspected of finding foreigners to adopt the babies allegedly supplied by Rosdiana.

"There are definitely more (child trafficking) syndicates out there. It's easy to find unwanted babies without a father or families with economic problems. There's a big potential here," says Ahmad Dofiri, police chief for women and children in Jakarta.

In the crowded backstreets of the Jakarta suburb where Rosdiana lived, such families were easy to find. They say that far from selling their babies for profit, they were tricked into giving them up and browbeaten into submission.

Sitting on the concrete floor in the two-room house that she shares with her husband and four children, Mulyani recalls that she met Rosdiana in 2000 during her fifth pregnancy.

The woman convinced her to give up her baby, saying it was a chance for a better life. Her sister would adopt the child and bring him up as her own, she told her.

In return, Rosdiana paid for Mulyani's medical costs — about $25. Thebaby boy was taken away shortly after delivery, and Mulyani was later assured that he was "fat and healthy". The following year, Mulyani fell pregnant again, and Rosdiana repeated her plea: Wasn't it better for the baby to live in a comfortable house and be fed and educated?

"I feel so sad. I didn't realize I was selling my babies. It's just because we are poor," says Mulyani, nodding at her husband. Neither of them suspected that the babies were being sent overseas, nor did they think it odd that no photos were ever shown.

Earlier this year, Mulyani, a soft-spoken woman with dark rings around her eyes, handed over a third baby to Rosdiana, a boy named Andre who was allegedly to be sold to Afrinaldi's fictitious foreigners. He has since been placed in the same orphanage as Erwin.

"People thought Rosdiana was an angel who just wanted to help poor families. She was well regarded in the neighborhood," says Afrinaldi, who helped bust a similar baby trafficking ring in 2004.

Back at the orphanage, staff say they are hopeful that Erwin can be returned to his real mother, who has been located in central Java.

The mother has visited several times and wants him back, says the orphanage chief, Marwianti.

"Erwin will accept her, I'm sure," she says.

The news was relayed to Ann McElhinney, the investigative journalist who reunited mother and son, as captured in the RTÉ documentary, The search for Tristan's Mum.

The programme was broadcast on RTÉ One last night.

Tristan became the centre of media attention in Ireland earlier this year after Irishman Joe Dowse and his wife Lala returned him to an orphanage in Jakarta after he was in their care for two years.

Ms McElhinney said she is delighted that mother and child will be together rather than having Tristan readopted by strangers.

She said Indonesian authorities had employed the services of a child psychologist to assess what was best for Tristan's future.

Video links available at: http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0907/dowset.html.

Perez Gallardo was advising Casa Alianza on several pending cases regarding irregular adoptions, murders, sexual exploitations and trafficking, and other instances of human rights violations against children.

In an attempt to avoid further impunity in the country Casa Alianza is demanding that the Guatemala justice system undertake an investigation in search of the assailants and assure that they are brought to justice.

Perez Gallardo has left behind a family and a brilliant professional career in which he was a true friend of justice and advocate for the human rights of all children.

Investigative journalist Ann McElhinney, who is from Bundoran, broke the story in the Irish media and travels back to Indonesia to try and find the person she thinks has been forgotten in the controversy, Tristan's natural mother Suryani.

'The Search for Tristan's Mum' follows Ann in a race against time to find Suryani before Tristan is readopted and lost to her forever.

Tristan Dowse has been seldom out of the headlines since the story broke in April 2005. Ireland was outraged when Ann reported how, as a newborn baby Tristan was adopted by Wicklow man Joe Dowse and his Azeri wife Lala.

For two years he was part of the Dowse family living a privileged life in Jakarta and became an Irish passport holder and a full Irish citizen. Then Lala became pregnant and, it is claimed, Joe dumped Tristan, his son, at an orphanage outside Jakarta. They flew off to start a new life in Azerbijan.

Tristan was then an illegal alien in Jakarta with no access to social services and possibly facing deportation.

Now an RTÉ documentary crew has followed Ann McElhinney as she tries to piece together Tristan's life and the murky circumstances of his adoption.

Ann, who is the daughter of John and Monica McElhinney, from the West End in Bundoran, has looked at the growing phenomenon of international adoption across the globe.

Before becoming a journalist Ann was a teacher and taught at the Mercy Convent Secondary School in Ballyshannon from 1991-1995.

Awkward questions 'The Search for Tristan's Mum' throws up awkward questions about the way international adoptions are organised and the role money and corruption plays in the process. It questions the idea that international adoption is a rescue of a baby and argues that children are often removed from their parents because of the large sums of money westerners bring to International adoption in corrupt and impoverished countries.

The Indonesian and Irish governments are trying to find a legal solution to Tristan's problems and have him readopted — there is an American couple who have said they are interested.

However, Ann McElhinney has previously reported that the adoption may be illegal and is surprised that no one wants to find Tristan's natural mother to hear her side of the story and ask her what she wants to do.

"In this story there have been lots of people talking. Lots of politicians in Ireland talking. There's been a lot of lawyers...working on this case. There's been lots and lots of talk, Irish people want to rescue the child, there's a huge amount of interest," she says in the documentary.

However according to Ann there has been no talk about Tristan's natural mother.

"I'm here because there's one person who seems to have been left out of every conversation, one person whose human rights appear to have been trampled on and that is Tristan Dowses natural mother Suryani, who is somewhere out here, somewhere out there in Indonesia and I'm here because I want to find her," she adds.

According to Ann, although a full Irish citizen, Tristan is being treated differently by the Irish authorities "If this happened in Dublin and we had heard about an illegal adoption and you know the child had been taken from his mother at a very tender age and all of that, we would have, the Gardai would put huge resources into it. I mean that's what we do and we do it well. You know everytime we have had a difficulty with a child in Ireland you hear about it, huge task force put together, big enquiry, you know we take this kind of thing very seriously and all the resources of the state would have been mustered to finding the mother and to hear her story and on this occasion we haven't done that and this child is Irish."

This documentary has lots of surprises and emotional high and low points in 'The Search for Tristan's Mum'.

In a documentary airing tomorrow night on RTÉ One called 'The Search for Tristan's Mum', Irish teacher-turned-journalist Ann McElhinney claims she tracked down the birth mother of Indonesian-born Tristan Dowse, who had been adopted by Co Wicklow accountant Joe Dowse (37) and his wife Lala shortly after his birth only to be returned to the orphanage.

The boy still remains at the orphanage while the courts determine his future.

But solicitor Gus Cullen, who represents the couple, said they only want what's best for the child despite the "one-sided" media reports painting them as cold and uncaring.

He said the couple tried to find Tristan's birth mother themselves before returning him to the Yorphanage outside Jakarta.

The complex legal wrangle between Ireland and Indonesia over Tristan's adoption is still before the High Court.

The four-year-old boy, who has been living in an Indonesian orphanage since being abandoned there two years ago by his adoptive Irish father, met his mother for the first time since his birth.

Tristan and his birth mother, Suranyi, have spent the past three weeks re-establishing their relationship after they were brought together by an RTÉ documentary team.

The emotional reunion will be shown in an hour-long programme on Tuesday night.

Although Tristan is still living in the Jakarta orphanage — where he has been renamed Irwin by orphanage staff — Suranyi has been visiting regularly to build up a rapport with him and there is a chance that the authorities will allow him to be returned to her.

Because he was born in Indonesia but has Irish citizenship, and there are doubts over the legality of his adoption, the toddler has been in a legal limbo ever since Joe Dowse, a wealthy Wicklow man now living in Azerbaijan, left him in an orphanage saying the adoption was simply "not working out".

While the authorities in Ireland and Indonesia have been working to untangle the legal dilemma, Ann McElhinney, an investigative journalist who first wrote about Tristan's story, tracked down Suranyi to a remote part of Indonesia and told her what had happened to her son.

"I said: 'He's beautiful and very healthy' and I asked her, 'What do you want to do?'," said McElhinney. "She said: 'I have to see him'." So McElhinney organised the transport and brought her to be reunited with her son.

"They're together now in Jakarta. We brought her back from Tegal (in central Java) to the orphanage."

The RTÉ documentary, entitled The Search for Tristan's Mum, charts McElhinney's quest to find Suranyi. It began in Jakarta where the paperwork in the adoption file showed Suryani's last known address, when she gave birth to Tristan in 2001.

McElhinney headed there and handed out fliers in the area, asking for information about the woman. "Somebody said 'I know her' and eventually we got an address in central Java," said McElhinney.

"I went on a train the next day and it turned out to be her mother's address, where I met her extended family."

At the time, McElhinney later discovered, Suranyi was living in Jakarta working in a food stall near a bus station.

Keeping the reason she was trying to contact Suryani secret from her family, McElhinney wrote her a letter and left it at the house in Tegal for her. In it she wrote the date of Tristan's birth and said if the date meant anything to get in touch with her.

On a previous visit to the country, McElhinney had secretly recorded a meeting with a woman called Rosdianah, who organised the adoption of Tristan by Dowse and whom Suranyi claims tricked her into giving her baby away.

The young mother said she had never meant for him to be adopted but rather taken into care because she could not afford to look after him.

In the documentary McElhinney meets the head of social services in Indonesia to see if they can help, but during the interview police seize the tapes of her meeting with Rosdianah.

As a result, a sting operation — also featured in the documentary — was launched in which undercover agents bought a baby from Rosdianah. She was subsequently arrested, along with her son and daughter, and they remain in custody facing charges of child trafficking.

The Indonesian authorities held a press conference saying they had broken up the baby brokering ring and Suryani's name was made public.

"She got scared and went home, and when she went home she got the letter," said McElhinney. "She contacted me and I flew out the next day and drove for six hours, straight to the house."

Many of the agencies who have been working on Tristan's case believe it is in his best interests to return to his natural mother. "We think the best outcome at this stage would be to reunite Tristan with his mother on a permanent basis," said Anton Sweeney of Adoption Ireland. "We are delighted that she was tracked down."

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: "We are aware that the child has met the mother and is spending more and more time with her. Our concern has always been the welfare of the child and anything that helps the welfare of the child is good."

Even though his natural mother has turned up to reclaim him, there is still a lot of legal wrangling to be sorted as Tristan holds an Irish passport.

In the meantime, the Attorney General has lodged a case in the High Court against the Dowses, in a bid to clarify the legal position. In order for the Indonesian authorities to allow Tristan to be re-adopted or returned to his mother, Tristan's name has to be removed from the Irish register of foreign adoptions.

John Collins, of the Adoption Board, the central adoption authority appointed by the government, welcomed the fact that Tristan had been reunited with his natural mother. A social worker from the board has made several visits to the orphanage in the past couple of months.

Collins said the Indonesian authorities will have to in- vestigate Suranyi's capacity to look after her son and the Adoption Board would be kept informed.

The Search for Tristan's Mum, will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Tuesday at 9.30pm.

For over a year, he has been stuck in this situation, with no escape. Despite knowing of his troubles for all this time, the Irish Government has done virtually nothing to rescue him.

The Department of Foreign Affairs states that one of its primary goals is to protect Irish citizens abroad.

In the very real case described above, the individual concerned is only three years old. But for Irish citizen Tristan Dowse, abandoned as a toddler in an Indonesian orphanage, the protection of the Irish State has been virtually meaningless.

It was only when Tristan's plight became public last month that the Irish authorities became in any way active on his case. The Irish Ambassador in Singapore — which covers Indonesia — became involved and paid Tristan a visit. Officials from the Adoption Board here and the Department of Foreign Affairs were dispatched to Indonesia. After a year of almost complete inaction, suddenly everyone was interested in Tristan, spouting platitudes that they were all acting in his best interests.

The reality, however, is that there is nobody to act in Tristan's interests. His parents and the various Government agencies involved all have their own lawyers, but Tristan has no one to speak for him or to represent him.

It is interesting to look at who exactly is involved here and at their own particular interests.

Firstly, there are Tristan's parents: his Irish father, Joe Dowse, and Azerbaijani mother Lala. They adopted him when he was two months old, in a procedure which has now become questionable. Eighteen months later, when "it just didn't work out", according to Joe, they dumped Tristan in an orphanage and left the country. They appear keen to nullify the adoption as soon as possible.

Then there are the Indonesian authorities. They appear to feel that the adoption of Tristan was illegal and have indicated that they will apply to an Indonesian court to have it set aside. However, well over a year since the adoption broke down, nothing has happened.

It is possible that the Indonesian government might well be embarrassed by a detailed examination of Tristan's adoption. It seems to have been rushed through the system, with normal and proper procedures bypassed. While Tristan's natural mother is Indonesian, it is clear from the comments of various officials of that country that they consider Tristan to be Irish.

Over on this side of the world, the Adoption Board has had an involvement in the case since 2001. It has given the seal of approval to Indonesia's adoption procedures, and consequently Tristan's adoption was recognised by the Irish courts. He was placed on the Register of Foreign Adoptions, became an Irish citizen and was issued an Irish passport. However, questions inevitably arise as to the role of the Adoption Board in an adoption which may in fact have been illegal. The board now also appears keen to have Tristan's adoption nullified by the Irish courts, leaving the way open for the child to be adopted again.

However, this may also result in the removal of Tristan's Irish citizenship, something which may certainly not be in his best interests in the future.

His case is a headache which the Government might well wish to be rid of, as it raises the daunting spectre of what duties the Irish State owes to the significant number of Irish citizen babies born to non-national parents in this country who have now left or been deported.

On a wider level, the Government must share some of the responsibility for Tristan's plight. Ten years ago, it signed the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions, but has since disgracefully failed to ratify it. The convention provides a wide range of safeguards around foreign adoptions, of which Ireland had more than 400 last year.

Designed to limit corruption and trafficking, it specifies for instance that Ireland would recognise only those adoptions from other participating countries. So far, Indonesia has neither signed nor ratified the convention.

What is clear from all this is that everyone involved in the case of young Tristan has their own agenda to pursue. This is not to say that they wish him any harm — far from it. But so far, there has been little indication that anyone has really cared what happens to him.

As his case becomes embroiled in separate legal processes thousands of miles apart, it is now vital that the Irish Government vindicates Tristan's rights by appointing both a social worker and a lawyer to act exclusively in his interests.

Without someone to fight for him and him only, there is a very real danger that the welfare of this small Irish citizen may be sacrificed on the altar of expediency.

Serious questions must now be asked as to why the Irish Adoption Board recognised this adoption, when a simple check with the Indonesian authorities would have confirmed it's illegality. Procedures must now be reviewed to ensure that this can never happen again. This also demonstrates the immediate need for adopted people and natural parents who are already active in the adoption field to be appointed to the board of the Adoption Authority, along with the adoptive parents who are already there.

This situation goes to further prove that Ireland should not be recognising adoptions with countries who have not yet ratified the Hague Convention and indeed, calls into question whether we should be conducting foreign adoption at all until Ireland itself ratifies the Convention later this year.

AdoptionIreland must also call for the investigation of those involved in procuring the allegedly illegal adoption in the first place, and in the subsequent abandonment of Tristan when he became "surplus to requirements." Prosecutions, if warranted, should follow.

Everything possible must now be done to help Tristan, who is the innocent victim in all of this. AdoptionIreland is calling on the Irish Adoption Board to make every effort to locate Tristan's natural family and to compensate him for the wrongs he has suffered. A child sponsoship programme should be set up by the Board to allow him to remain in his own country and culture, if at all possible with his natural family.

"That's an example of a government taking action to counter a criminal element," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy told reporters in Jakarta.

Bellamy said UNICEF had received reports of child trafficking syndicates that were operating in Aceh province before the disaster now trying to take advantage of the chaos there to seize children.

"Like looting when the lights go out"

"It's kind of like looters looting when the lights go out," Bellamy said on the sidelines of an international summit called to coordinate relief efforts for the December 26 disaster that killed more than 94 000 people in Aceh and at least 50 000 more elsewhere in Asia.

Indonesia this week announced the ban on adoption of children in Aceh, with a decree also making it illegal for people aged under 16 to be taken out of the province without their parents.

Members of the public are only allowed to sponsor the orphans, under the new regulations, and the children will remain under state care in orphanages run by the government, Islamic foundations and Muslim boarding schools.

Extended families first choice

Bellamy said people in other countries had expressed interest in adopting tsunami orphans, but cautioned there should not be a rush to send them out of their community or country.

Children whose parents were killed by the giant waves should be placed with extended families as the first choice, Bellamy said.

"These are countries with a long tradition of extended families. Let's see first if the extended family is willing and capable of taking in the children," she said.

Bellamy estimated about one-third of the people who perished in the tsunamis were children and many of the young survivors were now orphans.

Schooling an urgent task

One urgent task is to put the children back in schools to provide them with a sense of routine and familiarity to help them cope with the psychological impact of losing their parents and other family members.

"Kids mentioned waiting to go to school," said Bellamy who visited Aceh on Wednesday.

"One of the ways of dealing with trauma is helping children get back to school even if the school is destroyed. You can use tents. We're talking about schooling, not necessarily schools."

AFP