Mother seeks help to find missing American daughter

JAKARTA (JP): A 32-year-old woman visited the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute on Tuesday to request assistance in finding and getting back her four-year-old daughter, who she said was taken away by her American ex-husband.

Ira El Tuhari told the institute's lawyers that Scot Avery Case, 40, a former employee of Sheraton Timika Hotel in Irian Jaya, took their daughter Kiara Sandhi Case without her knowledge on Feb. 20 last year.

She said she did not know where Kiara was, but suspected that Case was hiding her somewhere in the United States. Kiara has American citizenship.

"I've visited the U.S. Embassy here to ask for information about my daughter. But the embassy staff told me that they could do nothing to help me, saying that my case is a personal matter," jobless Ira, a resident of Jl. Kebalen, South Jakarta, said.

She therefore urged the institute to help her find Kiara.

According to Ira, she and Case married at Sunda Kelapa mosque in Central Jakarta on May 15, 1993 but divorced through the Fak Fak Islamic court in Irian Jaya four years later.

The same court, she said, granted Ira custody of Kiara since the girl was a minor.

In February last year, Case went to Ira and asked permission to take Kiara to Singapore to supposedly extend the girl's exit permit.

"Scot promised that he would bring my daughter back to me shortly after completing Kiara's travel document," she said.

"But since than I have not seen my daughter. He broke his promise.

"I tried to contact him but I got no response," she said, looking gloomy.

Lawyer Erna Ratnaningsih from the institute said she would write a letter to the U.S. Embassy to ask for information about Case.

"We'll ask for an official response from the embassy," she said. (jun)