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Custody case may hurt Brazil trade

Director of the Brazil Business Center in Taipei Paulo A.P. Pinto and KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung hold a press conference yesterday to brief the media on the custody dispute over five-year-old orphan Iruan Ergui Wu, shown on the TV screen. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

A custody battle over five-year-old Iruan Ergui Wu -- an orphan born to Taiwanese and Brazilian parents now living with his uncle in Kaohsiung County -- may pose a threat to Taiwan-Brazil trade, businessmen said yesterday.

"The Brazilians think they're fighting a sacred war for Iruan, just as the Cubans did for the Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez," said Cartarina Szu (斯碧瑤), vice president of the Camara Commercial Taiwanese Chamber.

"And we [Taiwanese in Brazil] have sensed growing hostility from the people there and businessmen are really worried about the consequences of the escalating nationalism."

Taiwan's exports to Brazil came to US$776 million last year and an estimated 120,000 Taiwanese live in Brazil.

Szu, along with the director of the Brazil Business Center in Taiwan, Paulo A. P. Pinto, spoke yesterday at a press conference organized by KMT legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中).

Szu said that Brazilian support groups are campaigning for a boycott in Brazil of goods from Taiwan and plan to stage a protest when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visits Paraguay.

The custody dispute has been widely covered by Brazilian media in the past few weeks and a popular Brazilian TV show sent a crew to Taiwan last month to film Iruan at his uncle's Kaohsiung home.

Szu said the show, which reportedly drew more than 50 million viewers, had prompted a strong outcry against Taiwan. The show implied that Iruan was living unhappily in a "primitive" fishing town in southern Taiwan.

Iruan, born out of wedlock in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1995, had been in the care of his grandmother, Rosa Leocadia Ergui, since his Brazilian mother died of cancer in 1998.

According to Ergui, Iruan's father Wu Teng-shu (吳登樹), a Taiwanese sea captain, had signed legal papers authorizing her to take care of Iruan after his wife's death.

In March this year, however, Wu brought Iruan back to Taiwan and told his brother Wu Huo-yen (吳火眼) that he wanted Iruan to grow up in Taiwan. Iruan's father died unexpectedly, a week after

arriving in Taiwan with his son.

Ting said that Taiwan must handle the issue carefully as it risked causing severe damage to relations between the two countries, which do not maintain diplomatic ties.

Pinto said he had visited the Wu family three times in recent weeks and had given the boy's uncle legal papers from a Brazilian court, which had awarded temporary custody of Iruan to his grandmother. Pinto also said that he had shown Wu Huo-yen the papers his brother had signed authorizing Iruan's grandmother to take care of the boy.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has forwarded documents relating to the case to the Judicial Yuan at the request of Brazilian authorities.

Huang Chia-lieh (黃嘉烈), an official in the civil division of the Judicial Yuan, said yesterday they are still studying the papers, which have been translated from Portuguese into Chinese.

Huang said they are not sure what the Brazilian court wants them to do, whether it is requesting courts in Taiwan to assist with the investigation of evidence or to enforce its judgement.

If the latter is the case, Huang said, the boy's Brazilian relatives will have to file a request with the Taiwan courts and the request will be subject to an independent court review.

If the Taiwan court rules in favor of the Brazilian relatives, the return of the boy will then be enforced, Huang explained.

Born in Brazil, Iruan is a Brazilian national and does not hold a Taiwan passport, though he would likely be entitled to one under Taiwan's nationality law.

Iruan's uncle said he had had the boy's visa extended until July 15, but that it cannot be further extended beyond Sept. 15. The uncle said he was seeking ways to have Iruan registered as a permanent resident but was facing many obstacles.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, in order to obtain a Taiwan passport the boy would have to go back to the country of his birth and have an application for a passport lodged there.

Once he has obtained a Taiwan passport, he can re-enter the country and acquire permanent residency in Taiwan.
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