Catching Up

I haven't been posting anything of any real significance lately, but that's because nothing is happening!!! There have been some meetings and some conference calls, but we haven't gotten anything concrete out of them. About a month ago we had a conference call with the US Dept. of State. A few things were confirmed:
* "They" have no idea what the actualy problem is.
* "They" have no idea when it will be resolved.
* 65 families have received referrals and area waiting.
* over 200 families have submitted dossiers

There were a few more meetings scheduled that week. Valerie Chittenden is our Consul in Bishkek. On February 12th, she had a meeting with the Deputy MOE. Here's some of what came out of that meeting:

On February 12, 2009, Consul Valerie Chittenden met with the newly appointed Deputy Minister of Education (MOE)...This was the first official discussion we have had with Kyrgyz officials since the halt in adoptions.

The Kyrgyz Government has formed an adoption commission that includes officials from the Vice Prime Minister’s office, the Ministries of Education, Social Protection and Labor, Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, and Justice, as well as the General Prosecutor’s office. This commission is responsible for drafting new adoption policy and legislation, with special emphasis on clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the different agencies involved. The commission will recommend whether the Kyrgyz Republic should join the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. According to the Deputy Minister, the commission plans to report to Parliament by March 20. The Parliament will then choose what action it will take on these proposals. New legislation Parliament may pass will NOT affect existing cases other than to allow the Ministry of Education to resume processing adoption dossiers again. New adoption cases would be subject to any new requirements established by Parliament.

The Kyrgyz government does not intend to process any adoption cases, new or pending, until the adoption commission issues its report, expected March 20, and Parliament acts on these recommendations.

Only children with urgent medical care or special needs (medical conditions not treatable in Kyrgyzstan) can be considered for expeditious processing, that is, before the new regulations have been promulgated. (Developmental delays and related conditions are considered treatable in Kyrgyzstan.) So far, only one case among the 65 pending cases has met this definition, and that case has been approved for processing. Additional cases would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Embassy is seeking additional meetings with other officials, many of whom are also newly appointed to their positions in order to learn more about the Kyrgyz Government’s plans and to urge that the children who have been matched with adoptive families be allowed to join their permanent families as soon as possible.

On 2/11 a new MOE was appointed:
New Kyrgyz education and science minister appointed 11/02-2009 09:15, Bishkek – News Agency “24.kg”, By Aizada KUTUEVA

Abdylda Musaev was appointed a new Education and Science Minister of Kyrgyzstan. The Prime Minister Igor Chudinov introduced him to the cabinet Wednesday, February 11, 2009.

A week earlier the premier has introduced two assistant ministers – Umutkan Tynalieva and Boris Kubaev.

Note from the news agency “24.kg” – Abdylda Musaev is a principle of the Bishkek University of Liberal Arts, Umutkan Tynalieva is a former vice-mayor of Bishkek and Boris Kubaev headed the Institute of Strategic Information Technologies in Education.

http://www.eng.24.kg/personas/2009/02/11/7040.html

http://www.president.kg/ru/press/ukaz/3373/

March 3, 2009 - Joint Council is pleased to confirm that U.S. Embassy officials in Kyrgyzstan met late last week with the Vice Prime Ministers Office regarding the 65 in-process intercountry adoption cases and the future of intercountry adoptions from Kyrgyzstan. At this time Joint Council cannot confirm the exact contents of the conversation.

Further, we can confirm that police investigations are occurring in Kyrgyzstan in regards to accusations surrounding child buying for intercountry adoption. No further information on this subject is available at this time. As soon as more information is available Joint Council will release it on our website.

http://www.jcics.org/Kyrgyz%20Republic.htm

The only thing left to do at this point is to wait until March 20 and see what is reported. This waiting is sure getting old!