[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 26 (Thursday, March 9, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN MUST BE STOPPED

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell the story of Tom 
Sylvester and his daughter Carina. Her story is the fifth account in my 
series of one minutes on the more than 10,000 American children who 
have been abducted to foreign countries.
  Carina Sylvester was born in 1994 and was abducted by her mother 
Monika in 1995 and was taken to Austria. An Austrian trial court found 
Monika Sylvester to have violated The Hague Convention, but she refused 
to comply with the court order and did not voluntarily return Carina. 
Carina is now 5 years old and has lived in the home of her maternal 
grandparents in Graz, Austria; and since 1995, Tom has seen Carina only 
occasionally and only under strict supervision.
  Mr. Speaker, this Nation has an enormous problem with children who 
have been abducted internationally and Congress must be part of the 
solution. These one minutes are about families and reuniting children 
and parents. They are just the first steps in our ongoing dialogue with 
the American people and my colleagues in an effort to bring our 
children home.

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