Thursday, February 17, 2000
Albright vows help to Blue Ash dad
Mom took child, has her in Austria
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pledged Wednesday to personally help reunite a Blue Ash man with his daughter who was abducted by his ex-wife and taken to Austria five years ago.
Ms. Albright's involvement in the international custody dispute is the highest level of commitment so far by the U.S. government. It could eliminate roadblocks to Thomas Sylvester getting back his daughter, Carina.
Ms. Albright's promise to help Mr. Sylvester came at the request of Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, during a House International Relations Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. She also pledged to attend a follow-up meeting with Mr. Chabot, Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, and Mr. Sylvester.
“I will be very happy, Congressman, to look at this personally,” Ms. Albright said, pledging to raise the issue with the Austrian government.
Mr. Sylvester called Messrs. Chabot and Portman his “champions” because both have been very supportive of his efforts to get his daughter back.
“I am pleased that Madeleine Albright is finally taking a personal interest in my case. I hope her promise assists in allowing me to become a substantial part of my daughter's life.”
Mr. Chabot said the Austrian courts have ruled that the daughter should be returned, but there has been no effort by Austrian authorities to enforce those rulings.
“We've got a father here who played by the rules, who did everything legally he was supposed to do, and he's been abused and ignored by the system,” Mr. Chabot said. “It's time that our government got behind him and helped him to get his daughter back.
In October, Mr. Sylvester, a 46-year-old former Chrysler executive, told the House International Relations Committee about the abduction of his daughter Oct. 30, 1995, when his former wife, Monika, fled with the then 13-month-old Carina to her native Austria.
In 1996, the Austrian Court of Appeals and the Austrian Supreme Court ordered Carina's return to Mr. Sylvester, but his ex-wife refused to comply with the court orders. U.S. authorities and Interpol have issued warrants for Ms. Sylvester's arrest, but the Austrian government has failed to act.
“I think that the welfare of American children abducted from the U.S. by one of their parents is a high-priority item for our department,” Ms. Albright told Mr. Chabot during the meeting Wednesday. “And Attorney General (Janet) Reno and I have been frustrated by this, and we have a policy. (Our) departments have created a policy group and asked for a detailed action plan to improve the federal response to the problem of international parental child abduction.”
Mr. Sylvester, who met his wife while working in Chrysler's European operations, has seen his daughter only in highly supervised settings and for only hours at a time since 1995.
He has failed in his attempts to persuade Austrian authorities, including through the Hague Convention, the governing body of international law, to return his daughter. Austria is a signatory to the Hague Convention.
Austria is among a handful of nations that are out of compliance with the Hague Convention because its government has not promptly returned children wrongfully removed from their home countries.
Mr. Chabot said Ms. Albright's involvement is the “the highest level commitment (by the United States government) that we've had thus far. The only other higher level will be to the president. If (Ms. Albright's involvement) doesn't work, that will be our next step.”
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