ROSDIANA, a middleaged Indonesian woman, thought she knew immediately knew why I, an Irish woman, was phoning her.

"You want a baby?" she asked.

Rosdiana boasted how she facilitated over 50 adoptions of Indonesian children for foreigners. Until now, it has been a profitable business for Rosdiana and her friend, Juni Worten, the Indonesian-born wife of an American fundamentalist Baptist preacher, based in Jakarta.

However, the case of Tristan Dowse, the three-year-old adopted by an Irish family but abandoned in an Indonesian orphanage two years later, has brought an unwelcome spotlight on their activities.

Tristan's plight has now been the centre of investigations by both the Indonesian and Irish authorities, and has revealed a murky side to the adoption that has provided more questions than answers.

Of course, most adoptions throw up questions. When Mike Leigh, the British film director, made a movie about UK adoptions in the 1960s, he called it Secrets and Lies.

Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, the title seems to sum up the bizarre circumstances which led to the adoption and subsequent abandonment of Tristan Dowse.

At first glance, Tristan Dowse's adoption would seem to have little to do with secrets and lies.

Like so many foreign adoptions favoured by so many Irish people nowadays, Tristan's was portrayed as a rescue by Joe and Lala Dowse, a loving, infertile couple, who wanted to give an abandoned child a loving home.

It was no doubt these sentiments, that prompted Joseph and Margaret, Joe's parents, to write in their letter of recommendation that they knew the adoption "will bring benefits to all concerned". Joe and Lala appeared to agree.

In their adoption application at South Jakarta State Court House, they promised "to give the child life, health, prosperity and feelings of safety and security". They declared that "we will raise our adopted child like our own son because we believe that children are a priceless gift from God".

In an adoption file which seems to be full of some secrets and many lies, this statement was probably close to the truth but not in the way that the Dowses intended. Tristan Dowse was not so much a priceless gift from God as a pricey commodity in a shadowy market run by Rosdiana and her friend Juni.

There were few secrets and lies when Joe Dowse started the adoption process. Juni Worten helped foreigners who wanted to adopt. In Indonesia's large expat community, there were many professional couples who had concentrated on their careers and left it too late to have children. Then there were others like the Dowses, who had fertility problems.

Rosdiana, unaware that she was speaking to a journalist, gladly told the "prospective Irish client" how the system worked. Sitting in an elaborate, gold-embossed chair, she explained how her friend Juni found the clients and Rosdiana targeted the pregnant women.

Both women deny making money from their activities.

Rosdiana used her contacts among Jakarta's poor to find women desperate or gullible enough to sign over their children for adoption. These women, like Tristan's mother, would receive no counselling or be offered no alternative form of help. They would receive no legal advice or detailed explanation of what adoption really means in terms of future access to their children.

It is not clear that Suriyani, Tristan's mother, who already had two children with her husband Sarkawi, really understood the finality of adoption.

She has visited Rosdiana several times since the adoption, enquiring about his welfare.

"The first time she contacted me was about eight months after he was born. She asked about the baby. I told her he was out of the country. The last time she contacted me was about five months ago, " said Rosdiana.

She told the mother that Tristan was living abroad with his adoptive family.

She remembers Joe and the attention he paid to Tristan after he was born. Because Lala was out of the country, Tristan stayed with Rosdiana for the first two months of his life. But Joe was quite determined that he should not bond with his natural mother.

"Joe asked that the mother not breast-feed the baby because if she breast-fed him maybe she could be more attached with him. Joe also asked that the mother be separated from the baby to avoid feelings developing between them, " said Rosdiana.

Rosdiana said Suriyani was a "sincere" woman, who was torn between wanting the best for Tristan but not wanting to give up her child. She said she was concerned by the prospect of the adoption and was worried that she might have second thoughts.

"She met Tristan maybe when he was two weeks old.

After that she never met him again. She told me, 'Madam, it is not that I don't want to see Tristan. If I see him too often, I am afraid that I will fall in love with him.'" Throughout the early days of Tristan's life, Lala Dowse remained distant. She never visited the child while he was in Rosdiana's house, whereas Joe would often come to monitor the pregnancy and the child's progress.

Rosdiana said there is a constant demand for Indonesian children from foreigners. "Juni always telephones me. She says, 'Madam Ros, do you have a baby?' Yes I have it. She then says 'Yes there is my friend who wants a baby.' For example, right now I have three children not yet born and who are going to be adopted."

There was only one major sticking point for Juni and Rosdiana in processing adoptions such as Tristan's. Indonesia has quite strict laws concerning adoption, following massive baby-trafficking from the country in the 1970s.

If these strict laws were followed, then it would make adoption more difficult and so it seems in Tristan's case, at least, they bypassed the rules and ignored laws. These shortcuts have eventually caught up with them because Joe and Lala abandoned Tristan and brought an unwelcome spotlight on the adoption.

The Indonesian investigation into Tristan Dowse's case continues. They have uncovered a series of irregularities . . .

not least that he was abandoned by the Dowses.

Amongst these are:

>> that as a Muslim child he should only be adopted by fellow Muslims;

>> that there was no letter of permission from the Minister for Social Affairs;

>> that there are other discrepancies in the paperwork which should have meant that the adoption was not recognised by the Irish Adoption Board.

However, the adoption did receive the green light. As a result, Tristan finds himself in a legal limbo, despite attempts by the authorities to resolve his situation.

According to sources in the Indonesian government, they are hoping that his situation is regularised soon. The consensus then is that he will be adopted by a US couple who have expressed an interest.

However, the Irish government has yet to have Tristan's situation assessed by a childcare expert. Tristan's short life has already been adversely affected by well-meaning but apparently incompetent Irish officialdom. If Tristan was an Irish child who was illegally adopted in Ireland, there would be a clamour to try and reunite him with his natural family. That has not happened in this case and Tristan still sits in an orphanage with an uncertain future ahead of him.

Searching for his natural family will not be easy . . . it may even be expensive . . . but it is what every Irish child is entitled to.

To have him adopted by the American couple is a less difficult route. It remains to be seen whether the Irish government will go for the easy option or the more difficult one, which is Tristan's right.