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| The Washington Times\                                                 |
| [**www.washingtontimes.com**](http://www.washingtontimes.com/)        |
|                                                                       |
| ## Saudi custody cases pose problems                                  |
|                                                                       |
| By David R. Sands\                                                    |
| Published July 10, 2003                                               |
|                                                                       |
|     An American-born woman trying to flee with her two children from  |
| her Saudi husband told a congressional hearing yesterday she received |
| little support or guidance from U.S. consular officials as she was    |
| pressured to leave her children behind in Saudi Arabia last month.\   |
|     Sarah Waheed Saga, who was herself kidnapped by her Saudi father  |
| and taken to Saudi Arabia as a child, told the House Government       |
| Reform subcommittee on wellness and human rights that three U.S.      |
| consular officers in Jidda stood by as Saudi government officials     |
| insisted she sign a document waiving all custody rights to her        |
| 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter if she left the country.\      |
|     \"Nobody at all talked to me about my legal rights,\" Mrs. Saga   |
| told the subcommittee, her voice breaking on occasion. \"They gave me |
| information on my passport and that\'s all. Nobody talked to me about |
| what I should or shouldn\'t do.\"\                                    |
|     Faced with what she described as abuse from her husband, she      |
| decided to take the painful course of departure without her children\ |
|      Subcommittee Chairman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, called     |
| Mrs. Saga\'s case a \"tragedy\" and said it was only the latest in a  |
| series of bitter disputes with Saudi Arabia in child-abduction and    |
| disputed custody cases.\                                              |
|     Saudi Arabia has refused to sign an international convention on   |
| child-abduction disputes, he said.\                                   |
|     Women like Mrs. Saga live in fear of their fathers, husbands and  |
| male guardians and \"it is time that the American government did      |
| something about it,\" he said.\                                       |
|     The issue has become a sore point in U.S.-Saudi relations,        |
| already strained by differences over Iraq and criticism by some in    |
| the United States that Saudi Arabia has not done enough to curb       |
| international terrorism or combat Islamic fundamentalist sentiment at |
| home.\                                                                |
|     \"We continue to foster a relationship with a country that abuses |
| not only its own citizens but American citizens as well,\" said Rep.  |
| Diane Watson, California Democrat.\                                   |
|      Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs,  |
| said the State Department has pressed Saudi Arabia and other Middle   |
| East regimes in disputed custody cases, with some results to show for |
| it.\                                                                  |
|     She said seven Americans held against their will in Saudi Arabia, |
| Lebanon and Syria have been reunited with their U.S. relatives after  |
| a trip she made to the region in January. She made a second trip to   |
| Saudi Arabia in April, and three more disputed cases are expected to  |
| be resolved soon involving Saudi Arabia.\                             |
|     But she acknowledged that many of the cases are complicated by    |
| the fact that the children involved have dual citizenship and U.S.    |
| court and custody orders are not enforceable abroad. The Saga case,   |
| she said, demonstrates the \"pain\" involved in such cases, but also  |
| the \"limits of our abilities to meet our goals.\"\                   |
|     She said consular officials in Jidda told her they had            |
| recommended that Mrs. Saga not sign the waiver, something Mrs. Saga   |
| denied.\                                                              |
|     A day later, Mrs. Saga signed a second document drafted by        |
| embassy personnel saying she \"did not intend permanently to waive my |
| right at some later time to demand custody of my children.\"\         |
|     Both letters were witnessed by Loren G. Mealey, an officer at the |
| Jidda consulate.\                                                     |
|     Mrs. Harty said consular officers believed the first waiver       |
| letter was not legally enforceable, but Mr. Burton said the letter    |
| would prove at least a public-relations bonanza for Saudi officials   |
| if the custody battle continued.\                                     |
|     Saudi government representatives did not testify at yesterday\'s  |
| hearing, although at least one embassy employee was seen in the       |
| audience.\                                                            |
|     But the embassy did submit a statement to the subcommittee saying |
| that progress had been made on a number of outstanding cases and that |
| \"child custody issues are a human tragedy that should not be         |
| politicized.\"\                                                       |
|     The statement said that 10 children involved in outstanding       |
| custody cases will be returned to the United States this year ---     |
| approximately 40 percent of the disputed cases.\                      |
|     \"It is important to note that there are about 1,100 cases of     |
| child custody involving one American parent and less than one percent |
| of these involve Saudi parents,\" according to Mannal Radwan,         |
| assistant director of political and congressional affairs at the      |
| Saudi Embassy who has dealt extensively with such cases.\             |
|     But Ms. Radwan said Saudi Arabia still was not willing to sign    |
| the 1988 international convention governing child-abduction disputes, |
| saying the kingdom prefers a bilateral protocol with the United       |
| States.\                                                              |
|     Despite harsh criticism in the past of the State Department\'s    |
| handling of such cases, Mr. Burton said yesterday he had seen some    |
| progress in recent days.\                                             |
|     \"Before, the custodial American parents \[in Saudi cases\] were  |
| given no hope that their sons and daughters would ever be returned to |
| them,\" he said. \"We are now starting to see some light at the end   |
| of the tunnel, although we have quite a way to go before we           |
| completely emerge from the darkness.\"\                               |
|     \                                                                 |
| \                                                                     |
| \                                                                     |
| \                                                                     |
| Copyright © 2003 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. |
|                                                                       |
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