Editor,

On April 14, 1977; Prince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Armistead I. Shelton Jr., the Ambassador of the United States signed an Extradition Treaty. This Extradition Treaty is a formal process to legalize and facilitate the deportation of criminals of Tongan decent from the United States to Tonga and vice versa.

This Extradition Treaty is actually the formal process by which our children from the United States are deported to Tonga. Logic can easily conclude that habitual criminals will repeat their commission of crimes regardless of a change in the environment. The Government of Tonga should or should have forseen the consequences of accepting the deported criminals before it signed the said treaty on April 14, 1977. I would like to know what were the representatives of the Government of Tonga and/or Parliament thinking before they agreed that Prince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake signed that Extradition Treaty for the country.

Frankly, Tonga did contribute to the cause of the problems with our deported children from the United States. As a parent in the United States, I don't think it is fair for the people and the Authority in Tonga to stereotype and stigmatize our children as the main perpetrators of
crimes because : Tonga allowed / facilitated the deportation of our children by signing the Extradition Treaty and its people are committing crimes too. Tonga should not have accepted the responsibilities of foreign countries. Those foreign countries nutured and raised these deported children and therefore should be responsible for their actions.

One may argue that it is wrong for me to support the commission of crimes by our deported children. But I think the real issue here is whether or not Tonga would have suffered from the deportees' crimes if it had not signed the Extradition Treaty. I think Tonga suffered because it signed the Extradition Treaty. I think Tonga should dissolve the Extradition Treaty or do what the "Mafi of Amerika Samoa" suggested : to monitor the movements of criminal deportees to Tonga or even request a continuing imprisonment for deportees once they land in Tonga. This may help to deter and rehabilitate those deported criminals before releasiing them to the general population.

Yours sincerely,

Siosaia Fatani.

sstuakoi [at] yahoo [dot] com