EXPORTERS OF CHILDREN WANT TO GIVE LESSONS ON MORALITY

EXPORTERS OF CHILDREN WANT TO GIVE LESSONS ON MORALITY
By: Gabi Golea

The Romanian authorities have declared that more than 1,300 internationally adopted children have disappeared. As proof, they invoked certain presuppositions. The ace up their sleeve in this media war concerning international adoptions is really a jolly joker but what has come out, is something like a bluff. We are not for the opening of international adoptions. Since there are more than 2,000 families in Romania who want to adopt, and only 900 children who are adoptable, we think that there-opening of the exportation of minors is an immoral act. In this war, a war of financial motives or EU approval, we don't align ourselves with either camp. The one thing we fight for is the truth. This should be the work of any journalist.

The following problem has been given to journalists: "The Romanian Office for Adoptions announced that more than 1,300 Romanian children adopted internationally between 1997 and 2005 have disappeared. The proof: the Romanian government no longer has any news about them." Being more receptive than our other colleagues in this guild regarding the subject of "missing children", we have tried to follow up on some of the adoptees around the world. As with any disappearance, the first step which needs to be made, after the registration of the complaint, is to verify it. In the case indicated by the Romanian Office for Adoptions, the verification is made on the basis of the legislation which was in force in the indicated time period. Of these 1,300 children, 1,153 were adopted between 1997 and 2001, while 175 were adopted between 2001 and 2003. The largest number of these missing children is in the United States (491 of which 382 were adopted before 2001). There are 175 missing from Italy and 151 from Greece. There are two distinct categories involved in this situation: those which pre-date October 2001 and are based on the Emergency Ordinance Nr. 25 from June 9, 1997, and those which post-date October 2001 (175 cases).

In the first case, article 23 paragraph 2 from Emergency Ordinance Nr. 25/June 9, 1997, indicates the following: "The Romanian adoption committee or as the case may be the commission for child protection in the domicile of the adopter have the obligation to follow the development of the child for at least 2 years after the adoption is finalized. The public services specializing in child protection or the private organizations who were involved in the adoption of the child are obligated to present periodic reports in the condition established by governmental decision." Who then has the obligation to send these post-adoption reports? The obligation rests on the foreign foundations who intermediated these international adoptions.

These NGO's were authorized by the Romanian Authorities and in conformity with governmental decision Nr. 245/June 2, 1997. They were required to "annex an agreement to present the Romanian Adoption Committee with the names of families or persons with whom the NGO had signed a contract agreeing to follow up on the child with a qualified person for a period of two years after the arrival of the child on the foreign territory." (Article 5 paragraph 2 letter G)

The agreement which had to be signed by the NGO's indicated that if it was not kept, the NGO would risk the removal of their authorization to intermediate adoptions in Romania in the future. In spite of all these procedural technicalities for which the Romanian authorities are ultimately responsible, the reports were indeed sent. For two years, just as the law said, they were sent; but not up until 2006 as those from the Romania Adoption Office want.

CHAOS AT THE RAC/ORA

The reports arrived either directly at the Romanian Adoption Committee (at that time located on Nicolae Balcescu Blvd.) or at the foreign NGO's affiliate in Romania with whom they partnered. As of2002, the formerly accredited Romanian NGO's who did adoptions were disbanded or they completely changed their activities. The reports wandered off.......

A representative of the Helios Foundation in Bucharest told us that in the more than 100 international adoption cases which they mediated, there was not one case in which the reports were not filed. "It was an obligation assumed by the foreign foundations that they would send reports every 5 months. However, I know of no stipulation in the law which indicates any kind of sanction for not doing this," said one worker at the foundation. When asked to comment about the fact that the Romanian Adoption Office has 1,300 cases of children who have disappeared, the agency worker replied, "I believe that the Romania Adoption Office/Committee has super lousy record keeping skills. And at that time (around 2001), everything over there in their offices was topsy-turvey. We sent the reports to the Romanian Adoption Committee and after a while they would call us and ask us to send them again."

The Bambi Foundation from Turnu-Severin, mediated about 30 adoptions for the U.S. In the year 2000, these cost about $5,000. Those from the Bambi Foundation insist that the post-adoption reports were sent. "If we wouldn't have received them, we would have made a big fuss with our partner organization in the states," said a source within the leadership of the foundation.

The other situation (after October 2001) involved children adopted under the moratorium. On October 8, 2001, via Emergency Ordinance Nr. 121 international adoptions were suspended for a period of 12 months. Theoretically, this was so that they would never be re-opened again. Practically, the ordinance left the last door open for the milk man to milk this fat cow.

However, beginning October 2001, the NGO's (both Romanian and foreign) were excluded from mediating the adoptions. All adoptions were sent by the government to the courts via a total of 12 memorandums. There were 1,115 requests that made it to the courts of which 1,005 were approved. At that time, the authorities declared these cases as "exceptional humanitarian cases". Later, they were called "exceptional situations". We call them a mockery. Eight of these children went to Andorra, 4 to Venezuela and 1 to Slovakia. Of these 1,005 "humanitarian cases", the Romanian Adoption Office maintains that 175 are missing.

THE SITUATION IN AMERICA

Of the children adopted under the moratorium, 384 went to the United States. In the view of the Romanian authorities, the situation of the children adopted by the Americans is the most dramatic. They have the most missing children (491). The country has not ratified the Hague Convention regarding the protection of the child and cooperation on the issues surrounding international adoption. Thus, the American authorities are not obligated to cooperate with the Romanian authorities in this matter. Romania knew this and allowed the adoptions anyway in good faith. We tried to find some of these children and in doing so heard the American side of the issue.

Linda Robak and her husband adopted a 2 year old girl in 2001. She said, "The adoptive children and their parents visit Romania. I personally brought my daughter to Romania two years after the adoption and we met her biological family and we also visited with her god-parents." She also said that the post-adoption reports were made and sent every six months for two years after the adoption was finalized and she and her daughter arrived in the U.S. She paid $500 for each report. Linda further said, "The reports were sent to the foundations which did the adoptions. The foundations were responsible for the translation of the reports and for getting them to the Romanian authorities. But when international adoptions were interrupted, and the agencies disbanded, there was no way that those agencies (Romanian or American) could give the reports to the Romanian authorities. Not only that, but many agencies no longer existed after international adoptions were blocked. This mean that adoptive parents needed to find Romanian translators on their own, something which is more than a little difficult in most states in America. Only then could they send the reports to Romania. Others probably thought that with the stoppage of international adoptions, the reports were no longer necessary."

I asked Linda how she explained the panic which was created by the Romanian authorities when they declared that 1,300 children had disappeared. She replied, "It needs to be mentioned that in 2004 and 2005 when these accusations were made, American parents called the Romanian Embassy inWashington, D.C. to find out if they were on the list of 'missing reports'. Some discovered that the post-adoption reports which were sent were considered missing or lost; and this in spite of the fact that they had receipts. They had signed receipts received back from the U.S. Postal Service or Federal Express, as well as from the Romanian government or the directors of the foundations who had signed for the reports when they arrived in Romania. In 2004, they sent copies of all these reports to the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest so that they could be given directly into the hands of the Romanian state secretary for adoptions. In 2005, the parents again sent the 'missing reports'; but this time they sent them to both the Romanian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and to the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. The absence of these reports is primarily due to the failures of the Romanian government. This resulted from their failure, after the moratorium was enacted, to put in place a system which would facilitate the sending and receiving of these documents. As far as I know, no instructions inthis regard were sent to agencies or foundations. It is certain that adoptive parents did not receive any instructions. Almost all of the reports were completed and sent and are probably to be found at the old central government offices which were involved in this kind of thing and/or with the old NGO's in Romania. The problem is not really about how to locate these children, but rather, the problem is how to locate the files."

LOOK WHO'S TALKING

The point men in this match for international adoptions are Theodora Bertzi, State Secretary at the Romanian Office for Adoptions and Bogdan Panait, State Secretary for the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. In the past these two had played on opposite teams. Theodora Bertzi, a former parliamentarian from the Liberal Party was in the leadership at the Authority for the Protection of the Child and Adoption in the peak period of child exportation. In 2002, she functioned as the director of adoption monitoring, while in 2003, she was General Director at National Child Protection Authority. At that time, according to governmental decision Nr.1315 from Dec. 7, 2000, National Child Protection Authority evaluated the activities of NGO's involved with adoptions. In the cases where there were irregularities, their adoption activities could be suspended or their authorization withdrawn. More about these procedures could be gotten from Democratic Party Member Bogdan Panait, who occupied the position of comptroller at National Child Protection Authority from 2001 to 2002, and General Secretary at NCPA between 1998 and 2001. He has been an employee in the child protection field since 1994.

With this much experience, he should have information concerning the 102 NGO's who were accredited as of Feb. 2001, to intermediate adoptions. One of these foundations was the Golden Snowball Foundation. Another was the Association for our Children which, according to documents from CPS Timis, was involved with international adoptions in that county. What do these two NGO's have in common besides the fact that their area of activity is now defunct? What they have in common is Bogdan Panait. According to his resume, "from April 2002, until the present he has been program coordinator for the Association For our Children. His declared annual income from this foundation is 8,500 euros ($10,500). He is also a consultant with the Golden Snowball association for which he receives an annual salary of 3,300 euros ($4,100). He is also a consultant with "word learning" with an annual salary of 770 euros ($1,000). It is a fact that in 2000, the peak of this lucrative business when 3,035 Romanian children were adopted internationally, his ex-wife was a member of the Romanian Adoption Committee.

Since 1992, every December the Romania embassy in Washington, D.C. organizes a "Winter Party" for children adopted from Romania. On their website, www.roembus.org you can find many pictures of this event which show many of these adopted children. Furthermore, every two years, adoptive families from the U.S. who have adopted Romania children hold a reunion. Last year the reunion took place between July 14 and 17 in Burlington, VT. The Romanian ambassador, Sorin Ducaru, participated in the event. If the Romanian authorities wish to make post adoption reports on these children, they are invited to the next meeting. The Romanians have demonstrated the ability to wait. Why did they wait more than a year to reveal the fact that they knew about the disappearance of more than 1,300 children? Why did they keep quiet so long? Because others kept silent. In this verbal war, the children are nothing more than the subject of a sentence.