'I hope Madonna's not angry'
2006-10-27 17:49
Lilongwe, Malawi - The father of the 13-month-old Malawian boy Madonna is trying to adopt insisted on Friday that he supports her, and criticised human rights activists who want the courts to review the process.
"I am surprised what these guys are up to," Yohane Banda told journalists outside the courtroom where a hearing on the human rights group's challenge was held on Friday.
"Me and my family agreed with the adoption. I just want these people to leave my son alone."
The Human Rights Consultative Committee, a coalition of 67 Malawian rights groups, has petitioned the court to make sure no Malawian laws were broken in the adoption process, and to make the committee a party to the adoption so it can help assess Madonna's fitness as a mother.
Alan Chinula, the lawyer for Madonna and her husband, film director Guy Ritchie, said he told the judge on Friday that no laws had been broken.
"We followed the adoption procedures to the letter," said Chinula.
Justin Dzonzi, the chairperson of the human rights committee, said it was not trying to block the adoption but wanted to be a party to the process to make sure Malawian laws were respected.
"We want to be part of the assessment of Madonna to ascertain that she is a suitable mother," he said.
Child advocates stress that while they do not question Madonna's motives and ability to care for an adopted child, rules and regulations adopted to protect children should be respected. Otherwise, child traffickers or paedophiles might take advantage of loopholes.
The boy's father is a subsistence farmer whose wife died shortly after childbirth. Banda, who left his son with the Malawian orphanage where Madonna found him, lost two other children to malaria in infancy.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Banda said authorities had not made it clear to him that he was giving up his son "for good" when he signed adoption papers earlier this month. But Thursday, he shifted the blame to human rights groups.
"I was telling these rights groups that I wasn't selling my son. I said I wouldn't ... sell my son for anything but I had agreed with Madonna before a judge so my comments were taken out of context and I hope Madonna is not angry," he said.
- AP