WASHINGTON, 4 October — Lawmakers jumped in Wednesday on the ongoing controversy over children of mixed US-Saudi couples taken to Saudi Arabia by one of their parents amid disputes over custody.
The House Committee on Government Reform opened hearings on the subject with testimony from five mothers and one father unwillingly separated from their children, as the committee chairman reproached what he called passive US diplomatic efforts.
"(The Saudis) have really dug in their feet. They’re not budging one inch," Representative Dan Burton said, noting that President George W. Bush recently spoke with the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, on this issue.
Burton, who recently returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia to discuss this issue, noted that although the State Department had 42 registered cases he has heard of "hundreds of cases" since his return last month.
"I was hoping that the Saudis would deal with us in good faith and help us solve these cases. Instead, we got disinformation and public relations stunts," he said.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker expressed his sympathy for the families.
"It’s impossible to hear the testimony of mothers, and indeed their fathers as well who should not be forgotten, whose children have been abducted or withheld without feeling sympathy for their pain, for their tragic plight," Reeker said.
"But there’s a lack of an extradition treaty between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which has limited the effectiveness of criminal sanctions."
Prince Bandar, through his spokesman, recently denied the presence of kidnapped American children in Saudi Arabia.
"Some have charged that Saudi Arabia is holding Americans against their will. This is absolutely not true. The abduction of any child is a human tragedy that should not be politicized," he said noting his government has been working to solve 12 such cases with US authorities.
