Cambodia's long-awaited new legislation on inter-country adoption was yet to be drafted but was still expected to be passed by the end of next year, Cambodian media quoted a senior Foreign Affairs Ministry official as saying Thursday, according to dpa. Secretary of State for the Foreign Ministry Long Visalo made the promise to US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty Wednesday, Khmer-language daily Koh Santepheap reported. "We are passing a law relating to adoptions but in drafting it we must consider all the benefits," the paper quoted Visalo as saying. He said most importantly the law must be in line with other international and individual nations' legislation and ensure "the reasons behind the adoptions are beneficial to the children and not just the individual who comes to take them." "Children are not some sort of goods to be sold at markets," the newspaper quoted him as saying. The US announced an immediate suspension of the processing of adoptions from Cambodia in December 2001 citing fraud and a lack of legal framework to ensure the children were protected. Other countries, including France, Canada and Australia, quickly followed. In June 2004, a US court convicted one of Cambodia's most prominent international adoption agents, Lauryn Galindo, and her sister Lynn Devin on a range of charges including falsely representing some of their adoption candidates as orphans. Since then the US and others have accused the Cambodian government of dragging its feet on drawing up effective adoption legislation and warned the adoption moratorium will remain in place until it is passed.
