Miami relatives continue to pursue contact with Elian

May 18, 2000
Web posted at: 8:05 PM EDT (0005 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- The Miami relatives of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez continue to demand to see or at least communicate with him again.

Since the April 22 raid that reunited Elian with his father, attorneys for their Miami relatives have sent at least three letters to the Justice Department on the subject.

The Justice Department has responded at least twice. In its latest letter, sent Tuesday. In it, the Deputy Director of the Office of Civil Litigation David Kline repeated an offer of a consultation between the Miami relatives and government mental-health experts.

Kline said participants in such a meeting would discuss how the Miami relatives could begin to reconcile with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to possibly "lead to their meeting with Elian in a manner that would be beneficial to this child."

Lawyers for the Miami relatives were also told they could send letters, videos, and photographs to Elian via his father at the Wye Plantation's Carmichael Farm or via Gregory Craig, the father's attorney.

The lawyers have demanded assurances any communications would not be censored.

In his letter, the government's attorney said the Justice Department would not censor any materials, but could not assure others would not.

"The determination about what materials will be shown to Elian will be made by his father," Kline wrote.

Kline also stated that phone calls to Elian "should be determined by Mr. Gonzalez," referring to the boy's father.

On Wednesday, the Miami relatives filed a judicial notice with the federal Appeals Court in Atlanta.

It called to the court's attention a photograph of Elian printed in Tuesday's edition of Granma, Cuba's communist party newspaper.

The photograph shows Elian wearing a bandana around his neck.

The attorneys called the boy's clothes "the uniform of a Young Communist Pioneer."

The filing includes a copy of a previously filed affidavit of a child psychologist hired by the Miami relatives who had predicted Elian would be forced to wear a bandana and be ordered to swear allegiance to "Los Pioneros" (the Pioneers) and "undergo formal indoctrination in Communist ideology" if returned to Cuba.

The federal appeals court in Atlanta is deciding whether to force the government to give Elian a political asylum hearing.

The government maintains the boy's father speaks for his son.

Last Thursday, the court's three-judge panel heard arguments in the case and said it would issue a decision "in weeks, not months."

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