VZCZCXRO2332
PP RUEHPB
DE RUCNDT #0603/01 1691700
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181700Z JUN 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6738
INFO RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY PRIORITY 0149

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000603 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO/UNP, EAP/ANP, L/DL, CA/VO.CI, DS/PL AND 
DS/FLD/LAFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OFDP PREL PP UN
SUBJECT: REPATRIATION OF SIMON TARALALA 
 
REF: 08 STATE 04569 
 
 ¶1. This message is sensitive but unclassified - please 
protect accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY:   Simon Taralala, the 16 year-old adopted 
son of Papua New Guinea Deputy PermRep Mathilda Takaku, has 
been in foster care under the control of New York City's 
Administration of Children's Services (NYC-ACS) since January 
2007 when he was the victim of child abuse.  As his adoptive 
mother is not able to care for him, NYC-ACS has asked Papua 
New Guinea PermRep Robert Aisi to repatriate Simon.  If Aisi 
or his Mission/Government do not provide NYC-ACS with a plane 
ticket by Friday, June 19, NYC-ACS will fund Simon's 
repatriation themselves and seek Department assistance in 
ensuring that Simon is returned to his birth mother on his 
arrival in Port Moresby, perhaps as early as the week of June 
¶22.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 ¶3. (SBU) Background: Simon Taralala (born 27MAR1993 in Port 
Moresby) arrived with his adoptive mother (his biological 
great aunt) Mathilda Takaku on 220/05.  Mathilda Takaku was 
(and still is) registered with USUN as Minister-Counselor (in 
fact Deputy PermRep) at the Papua New Guinea Mission to the 
UN.  On 1/5/07, USUN received a complaint from the NYPD that 
Mathilda had assaulted Simon by beating him with a belt 
because his school had called to report that he was a 
discipline problem.  Simon was taken to the hospital, and 
from there placed in the emergency custody of NYC's 
Administration of Children's Services (NYC-ACS) when it was 
determined that he would neither feel safe returning home or 
going to the residence of Papua New Guinea's Ambassador to 
the UN, Robert Aisi. On 1/9/09 at a meeting between USUN, NYC 
and the Papua New Guinea Mission, Ms. Takaku signed a 
voluntary consent order giving ACS temporary custody of Simon 
until he and Mathilda could be given counseling and Simon 
could be safely returned to the home.  Since it was always 
assumed that Simon would return home, USUN took no action to 
terminate his G-1 status or to otherwise strip him of 
diplomatic privileges and immunities.  USUN has not contacted 
USCIS on this case, and does not believe that NYC-ACS has 
done so either. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Background, continued:  As Simon repeatedly said 
that he would not be safe in his adoptive mother's home even 
following successful NYC-ACS counseling of mother and child, 
Simon was placed with foster parents in a Harlem home, where 
he appears - at lest for the first year or more - to have 
been happy.  Throughout 2007 and 2008, he refused to return 
to his mother's care, saying he feared her. Ambassador Aisi 
was concerned about the environment at the home and reported 
that Simon was losing his cultural bearings. In the summer of 
2008, Aisi began to pressure NYC to release Simon to 
Mathilda, but ACS decide against it.  Since that time, 
Mathilda has become seriously ill (we understand that she is 
suffering from terminal cancer), and although she returned 
briefly to work in the beginning of 2009, she no longer is 
working and there appear to be no plans to send her home. 
Faced with this situation, NYC has decided that it was no 
longer in its interests or those of Simon to keep him in 
foster care until his 18th birthday, and in any event, Simon 
now states that he would like to return to PNG. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Next steps  The General Counsel of the NYC 
Commission for the UN and Consular Corps wrote to Ambassador 
Aisi on June 5 requesting that he contact NYC no later than 
Friday, June 19 to finalize arrangements for Simon's 
repatriation.  Neither USUN nor NYC expects Aisi to be 
cooperative, especially as he has refused to call any of 
USUN's or the City's calls on this issue for almost a year. 
If the PNG Mission does not arrange for Simon's repatriation, 
NYC will purchase Simon's plane ticket home as early as the 
week of June 22, and plans to ask USUN/Department to (1) seek 
reimbursement from the PNG Government and (2 request 
assistance with the repatriation itself. In the likely case 
that Simon will have to change planes in Los Angeles, NYC 
will request that a Department office go to LAX to ensure 
that Simon makes his onward connection. NYC is also likely to 
request that the Department ask AmEmbassy Port Moresby to 
assist the PNG Government with Simon's arrival (both the 
Foreign Affairs Department and the Department for Community 
Development are aware of the case).  USUN presumes this will 
involve AmEmbassy Port Moresby informing the appropriate PNG 
officials that Simon will be arriving on X flight on Y day, 
and ensuring that the Government has someone there to meet 
the plane and take Simon to his natural mother, reportedly 
named Joyce Maia Kungkei living in Tarara village on 
Bougainville.  USUN also expects that NYC will request that 
the PNGG terminate Mathilda's adoption rights over Simon, as 
ACS provided USUN and the Department with Simon's child abuse 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000603  002 OF 002 
 
 
file. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  USUN will report further when NYC informs us of 
the exact repatriation plans and any specific requests for 
assistance in addition to those outlined above. 
RICE