Adoptions negotiated through Euro-lies
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public
Publication: Cotidianul
Date: 20, October, 2006
Author: Oana Craciun
Title: Adoptions negotiated through Euro-lies
It seems that the pressures exercised by the Euro MPs for the resumption of the international adoptions are based on falsified documents
The Euro MP Claire Gibault revealed Wednesday in a press conference that the initiative of more than 400 Euro MPs for de-blocking inter country adoptions is backed by information obtained following several discussions with children from Poiana Soarelui placement centre. The Euro MP claimed that the two children she talked with admitted the abuses recriminated in the letter sent in August to the European Parliament. Gibault also stated that those children should have been adopted abroad and that the youngsters confessed they would have liked to be adopted by a foreign family. In other words, that there are children in Romania that would like to be adopted abroad, because they live here in improper conditions. However one of the children she had discussions with denied, a week ago, the content and his implication in sending the letter that reached the Euro MPs' desk. Moreover, according to Theodora Bertzi, head of the Romanian Office for Adoptions requests for inter country adoption were never filed on the names of the children who allegedly signed the document.
Letter with unknown elements
Beginning of August, a letter was sent to the European Parliament; apparently it was signed by seven youngsters who claimed they were living in the Educational Complex Poiana Soarelui. In the seven pages document, the youngsters accused their guardians and foster mothers of abuses, improper living conditions and even the obligation to work illegally, at the centre's bakery or in supermarkets such as Metro. But the information was denied both by authorities and the children. The administrator of the bakery declared there were some children there during summer, but they had worked with legal contracts. "I've seen the cheques on their names, when they got the payment", he said. In the bakery, we came across a former resident of the Poiana Soarelui centre, aged 18, who declared she had been working there for several months. "She had work contract and got the minim legal wage". As to the declarations in the letter according to which the girls from the center worked illegally in a Metro hyper market, Mihai Impuscatu, the administrator of the cleaning company delivering services to the hyper market showed us the work contracts of the employees and stated: "We never hired any of the Poiana Soarelui residents."
Unsigned signatories
There are proofs that the seven children who appear as signatories aren't the ones who edited and sent the letter. Luminita Timpea, the head of Poiana Soarelui centre, said that four of the children whose names appear in the letter couldn't possibly have signed it or declared themselves residents of the centre simply because they didn't live there anymore, "some for more than two years". When confronted with the letter sent in August, two of the signatory children, aged 17, the only ones that still live at Poiana Soarelui, declared they didn't know about its existence and that they never had anything to do with editing its content. "We were at the seaside by then. I never knew anything about this", said one of the boys. Maria Ivan, their foster mother, who accompanied them at the seaside, confirmed this. The other boy was at the seaside as well and he declared himself very upset that those who wrote the letter claimed "I was a Rroma child, whereas I am Hungarian", declaration backed by his name.
The instrument of the lobbyists
Both the director of the centre and the central authorities suspect the local journalist Cornelius Popa of involvement in sending the letter to the Euro MPs, although he denied any connection with this issue. Nevertheless he was present when a high school was visited by the Euro MP Claire Gibault, with whom he declared he had a "personal relationship", according to the director of the centre who witnessed the discussion.
When asked if Popa wrote the letter in their place, the youngster who left the centre after the scandal burst out, declared he "only translated it, somebody else wrote it. Not us. Someone who wants the best for us." Luminita Timpea also revealed the involvement of Azota Popescu, the head of the Catharsis NGO that was accredited to intermediate international adoptions before the Moratorium. Azota Popescu allegedly bought the youngster a phone and paid for the subscription. The boy confirmed this information. When asked if Azota Popescu edited the content of the letter, the 17 year old boy who was now "selling clothes to the gypsies in the market" in Brasov and lived in a shelter for homeless people, only bowed his head, without any commentary.
Date: 20, October, 2006
Author: Oana Craciun
Title: Adoptions negotiated through Euro-lies
It seems that the pressures exercised by the Euro MPs for the resumption of the international adoptions are based on falsified documents
The Euro MP Claire Gibault revealed Wednesday in a press conference that the initiative of more than 400 Euro MPs for de-blocking inter country adoptions is backed by information obtained following several discussions with children from Poiana Soarelui placement centre. The Euro MP claimed that the two children she talked with admitted the abuses recriminated in the letter sent in August to the European Parliament. Gibault also stated that those children should have been adopted abroad and that the youngsters confessed they would have liked to be adopted by a foreign family. In other words, that there are children in Romania that would like to be adopted abroad, because they live here in improper conditions. However one of the children she had discussions with denied, a week ago, the content and his implication in sending the letter that reached the Euro MPs' desk. Moreover, according to Theodora Bertzi, head of the Romanian Office for Adoptions requests for inter country adoption were never filed on the names of the children who allegedly signed the document.
Letter with unknown elements
Beginning of August, a letter was sent to the European Parliament; apparently it was signed by seven youngsters who claimed they were living in the Educational Complex Poiana Soarelui. In the seven pages document, the youngsters accused their guardians and foster mothers of abuses, improper living conditions and even the obligation to work illegally, at the centre's bakery or in supermarkets such as Metro. But the information was denied both by authorities and the children. The administrator of the bakery declared there were some children there during summer, but they had worked with legal contracts. "I've seen the cheques on their names, when they got the payment", he said. In the bakery, we came across a former resident of the Poiana Soarelui centre, aged 18, who declared she had been working there for several months. "She had work contract and got the minim legal wage". As to the declarations in the letter according to which the girls from the center worked illegally in a Metro hyper market, Mihai Impuscatu, the administrator of the cleaning company delivering services to the hyper market showed us the work contracts of the employees and stated: "We never hired any of the Poiana Soarelui residents."
Unsigned signatories
There are proofs that the seven children who appear as signatories aren't the ones who edited and sent the letter. Luminita Timpea, the head of Poiana Soarelui centre, said that four of the children whose names appear in the letter couldn't possibly have signed it or declared themselves residents of the centre simply because they didn't live there anymore, "some for more than two years". When confronted with the letter sent in August, two of the signatory children, aged 17, the only ones that still live at Poiana Soarelui, declared they didn't know about its existence and that they never had anything to do with editing its content. "We were at the seaside by then. I never knew anything about this", said one of the boys. Maria Ivan, their foster mother, who accompanied them at the seaside, confirmed this. The other boy was at the seaside as well and he declared himself very upset that those who wrote the letter claimed "I was a Rroma child, whereas I am Hungarian", declaration backed by his name.
The instrument of the lobbyists
Both the director of the centre and the central authorities suspect the local journalist Cornelius Popa of involvement in sending the letter to the Euro MPs, although he denied any connection with this issue. Nevertheless he was present when a high school was visited by the Euro MP Claire Gibault, with whom he declared he had a "personal relationship", according to the director of the centre who witnessed the discussion.
When asked if Popa wrote the letter in their place, the youngster who left the centre after the scandal burst out, declared he "only translated it, somebody else wrote it. Not us. Someone who wants the best for us." Luminita Timpea also revealed the involvement of Azota Popescu, the head of the Catharsis NGO that was accredited to intermediate international adoptions before the Moratorium. Azota Popescu allegedly bought the youngster a phone and paid for the subscription. The boy confirmed this information. When asked if Azota Popescu edited the content of the letter, the 17 year old boy who was now "selling clothes to the gypsies in the market" in Brasov and lived in a shelter for homeless people, only bowed his head, without any commentary.
2006 Oct 20