The Editor,

You set off a debate on the ideas surrounding international adoption, a phenomenon

of society in the West for hundreds of thousands of couples and unmarrieds wishing

to have a child that they can't find in their own countries, and the nations which

let go their babies are more and more numerous.

Cambodia is fashionable.

The air of slander whispered by (Daniel) Susott on half a page of the Phnom Penh

Post - after his previous remarks on the "size of public servants from the Ministry

of Social Affairs of the State of Cambodia," the fat wealthy and the skinny

poor (?) - could make us laugh if it didn't risk making unaware readers believe that

Mr Long Visalo and myself wish (for) the death of Khmer orphans, whereas he, Daniel

Susott sees them surfing in a Hawaiian paradise.

According to him, prostitution and gangsterism would be their future in Cambodia

(as in Korea). Ridiculous and slanderous.

Thousands of children our association has been sponsoring for eight years have the

choice among different (kinds of) professional and university training.

Do we help Cambodia to rebuild itself this way or by exporting its children?

For those who are sick, solutions that respect Cambodia also exist: For example,

through a chain of hope, professor Alain Deloche has operated on hundreds of Khmer

children in France, who returned back home two months later.

Dozens of children have benefitted from the Nutrition Center.

Susott's selective memory does not let him write that it was after the departure

of a group of children organized by his foundation that Prime Minister Hun Sen banned

international adoptions - local adoptions (were allowed) vigourously to remain.

This wise decision allows Cambodia to avoid the experiment taking place in a large

neighboring country where the adoption business is growing.

Let's wait with serenity the law on international adoption drafted by the Royal Government

and discussed by the Assembly.

The goal of NGOs should never be to take part in the dreadful phenomena of racism,

of uprooting, of unemployment and other problems which hit with a full whip America

and Europe.

- Charles Fejtö, Director, Ecole Chey Chum Neas, Phnom Penh.