From: waseems@sco.COM (Waseem Siddiqi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Malaysian Prince and His Children Case
Date: 13 Aug 92 14:37:24 GMT
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.

forwarded from SEASIA-L

/* Written 12:04 am  Aug 12, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "AUSTRALIA: MALAYSIAN CHILD ABDUCTIO" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Third World Dvpmnt
Title: AUSTRALIA: MALAYSIAN CHILD ABDUCTION CASE TESTS INTERNATIONAL LAW


an inter press service feature

by kalinga seneviratne

sydney, aug 10 (ips) -- the courts of this country had awarded his
australian ex-wife sole custody of nine-year-old iddin and seven-
year-old shahirah, and so last month malaysian prince raja kamarul
bahrin shah arrived in melbourne to pay his children a visit.

but he soon disappeared with them, resurfacing two weeks later in
kuala lumpur, malaysia. shah claimed malaysian courts had given him
custody much earlier.

''i was married in malaysia and the children were born in
malaysia,'' shah said angrily in a recent radio interview broadcast
here. ''they were taken to australia on the false pretext that my
wife wanted to visit her sick grandmother.''

that was seven years ago. shah said he allowed his wife to take
the children ''in good faith'' but that she headed straight for the
family courts once she got to australia. ''the stealing was done
many years ago and i'm just restoring the status quo,'' he claimed.

shah added that in february 1986, australian courts had described
his wife's action as ''international kidnapping and ordered the case
to be heard back in malaysia''. but that decision was overturned on
appeal.

his ex-wife and her second husband have appealed to canberra for
help to get the children back. but while australia is one of the 22
signatories to the 1980 convention on the civil aspects of
international child abduction, malaysia is not.

australian foreign minister gareth evans has suggested canberra
and kuala lumpur forge an agreement for the mutual enforcement of
the custody orders of each country's courts. but legal analysts here
say the shah case will not be affected even if such a move is made.

noted chief justice alastair nicholson of the australian family
court: ''custody orders are difficult to impose on an extra-
territorial basis. when the subject of the order, in this case the
children, are removed from the country, the law only operates in the
hague convention countries.''

nicholson added that since australia signed the hague convention,
family courts here have consistently taken the stand that if no
exceptional circumstances exists regarding the safety of the
children, it is left to the courts of the originating country to
settle it.

''in fact we have sent children back to chile, which is a non-
convention country, on that basis,'' he said. had the same
guidelines been applied in 1986, the shah children would have been
sent back to malaysia in 1986.  (more/ips)



australia: malaysian (2)

shah said he decided to take iddin and shahirah with him because
his ex-wife had converted them to christianity without his knowledge
and had given them her new husband's surname of gillespie.

still, he said, he had been willing to leave the children in
their mother's care if they were allowed to attend islamic classes
in melbourne at least twice a month. but, said shah, ''when i went
to court with that request, they gave me an order even stopping me
taking them to a mosque.''

commented dr. osman ali, a psychiatrist and australian islamic
media director: ''this story was completely exploited by the media
to drag islam into the conflict and make it look as if islam was the
reason for the perceived suffering by the children.''

these days, iddin and shahirah are reported to be happily settled
in their new surroundings in kuala terengganu in malaysia, where
their father has an architectural practice.

their photos are also said to have been distributed to all
customs and immigration points in malaysia by the police inspector
general, to foil any attempt to take the children out of that
country.

the australian attorney general, meanwhile, has agreed to provide
limited assistance to their mother in order for her to mount a legal
challenge in malaysia.

family law and extradition specialist deborah sherry also said
that with the lawasia conference scheduled to be held in kuala
lumpur in september, the shah case will continue to be a major legal
topic in malaysia.

but evans emphasised recently that the case remains a private
matter and that governments should not get involved in family law
cases.

canberra has also dismissed as speculation any allegation that
indonesian military personnel had been involved in the taking of the
shah children from australia.

the prince himself has not revealed how he was able to spirit the
two kids out of australian territory. but media here have pieced
data together and have concluded that shah flew with the children to
a remote location in northern australia or thursday island.

they said shah and the children then proceeded by private yacht
to irian jaya, indonesia under the nose of the australian coastwatch
authority, and took a flight to malaysia from there.
(end/ips/ks/cb/92)
-- 
Waseem A. Siddiqi                                 Tel:    (416) 922 1937 
SCO Canada                                        email: waseems@sco.com 
Toronto, Canada                                        uunet!sco!waseems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------