Posted on 10/03/2002 2:35:29 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House committee chairman says Saudi Arabia is undermining efforts to return children involved in custody disputes to the American parents who are supposed to have custody.
And the State Department isn't doing much to help, said Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.
"They set up every impediment they could possibly set up to keep you from getting your daughter back to the United States," Burton told one mother, Samiah Seramur of Boca Raton, Fla. Seramur told the panel Wednesday how U.S. officials kept losing documents and discouraging her as she tried to help her daughter escape from her ex-husband.
On Thursday, State Department officials and a spokesman for the Saudi government are appearing before the committee as it holds its second day of hearings examining whether Saudi officials are responsible for the kidnappings of Americans.
In at least one case, Burton said, he has no doubt they were.
The Saudi embassy issued passports for three Saudi-American children of an Indiana woman in 2000, even after a judge asked it not to, said Burton, R-Ind. Their Saudi father then took the children to Saudi Arabia.
The mother, Joanna Stephenson Tonetti of Fort Wayne, said two years passed before she heard from the children, ages 7, 10 and 12.
"The Saudi government was complicitous in the kidnapping," Burton said. "They granted passports to these (three) kids after a U.S. judge called them or contacted them and told them the children were not to leave the country."
For months, Burton's committee has been looking into disputes in which children, often dual-citizens, have been taken to Saudi Arabia, usually by their Saudi fathers, and are unable to return. In many of these cases, U.S. courts have given custody to the American mothers. In August, Burton led a delegation to Saudi Arabia to talk to the Saudi government and some of the children.
Burton's hearings come at a time when Saudi-U.S. relations are particularly sensitive because of differences over the question of taking military action against Iraq.
The State Department has been trying to resolve the custody problems, spokesman Philip T. Reeker said.
"There's no higher priority than to try to look after the welfare of our fellow American citizens overseas," he said. "These are difficult and emotional issues."
Reeker said he didn't know details of how embassy staffs have handled specific cases.
"But I certainly know anecdotally from many of the stories I read about, American State Department officials overseas have tried desperately to help and do what they can in these situations," he said.
A message left at the Saudi Embassy on Wednesday was not immediately returned. Saudi officials have characterized cases cited by Burton as family matters, rather than foreign relations disputes. In some cases, children mentioned by Burton are now adults, and have said they don't want to leave Saudi Arabia.
Burton said children have been pressured by the Saudis to say they want to stay.
"Maybe the Saudis think we're stupid," he said. "Maybe they think we don't recognize coercion when we see it."
He said Saudis have tried to appear cooperative "but behind the scenes, they did everything they could to undermine us."
Burton warned Saudi Arabia that pressure from his committee "ain't going to stop."
"You are either going to start observing U.S. law and treating Americans as they should be treated, or you're going to suffer the consequences," he said.
Among the six families appearing at Wednesday's hearing were Seramur and her 17-year-old daughter Maha al-Rehaili. A committee report said Seramur's ex-husband didn't allow Maha and her two siblings to return after a visit in 1994. Seramur helped her escape during a vacation in Malaysia. The other two children, ages 16 and 20, remain in Saudi Arabia.
She said that when she learned that her son, Faisal, was being beaten in Saudi Arabia, she asked the State Department to help.
"They informed me that since my son was alive, it was in his interest that I do not ask them to contact the local authorities to get involved, since the consequences may be even more severe for my son," she said.
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