MALAWI: Malawians express mixed feelings about pop star Madonna's plans to adopt one-year-old Malawian boy

As the one-year-old Malawian boy Madonna hopes to adopt flies to London, human rights workers and residents of the country's capital expressed mixed feelings about the case. The boy headed to the United Kingdom after boarding a flight from South Africa, according to a newspaper photographer at the airport. Earlier, a private jet had whisked the boy from Malawi to Johannesburg after Malawian authorities waived local rules to grant the pop star an interim adoption and issued the boy, David Banda, with a passport. A lawyer for human rights groups who had planned to file an application on Monday asking the court to block the adoption said it was technically legal for Madonna to take Banda out of the country. But rights groups reiterated their anger that the pop diva was being allowed to circumvent Malawian laws. "The reason is basically that if David goes and then we proceed with this case and then the court agrees with us, Madonna would have no alternative but to bring David back and that is more disturbing because a new life would have began for David, " said Justin Dzonzi of the Human Rights Consultative Committee. Maxwell Matewere, the executive director for local human rights group Eye of the Child said in the end it was up to authorities to decide. "The process has been done very quickly, and that does not satisfy that Madonna has been properly assesses in terms of caring for the child. We don't have doubts, we have her history about Madonna different opinions have been expressed regarding Madonna, but it all remains in the hands of those in authority to determine whether Madonna is fit or not," he said. But on the streets of the capital, one local residents were more supportive. "As long as the law is followed, I don't have any problem with the child being adopted," Mickshon Makungwa. The baby had left Malawi with one of Madonna's bodyguards and her personal assistant, prompting charges from local human rights groups that she had used her celebrity status to bypass normal adoption rules. Banda will swap his home in a dilapidated orphanage near the Zambian border for a life of luxury in London with one of the world's most famous couples and their two children. There was media speculation in Britain on Monday that Madonna may have failed to take the extensive series of detailed steps required to adopt a child from overseas. In addition to two homes in Britain, the singer also has a home in Beverly Hills in the United States. The couple arrived in Malawi on Oct. 4 on what was described as a humanitarian trip, and left last Friday. Madonna spent most of her time in Malawi visiting orphanages and meeting charity workers as part of a campaign to publicise the plight of some 900,000 orphans, around seven percent of a population devastates by AIDS. She has pledged to donate about 3 million US dollars to the campaign to help these children, many of whom are themselves infected with HIV. The effort is being spearheaded by her charity, Raising Malawi.

ITN Source | October 17, 2006

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