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 | Sunday, April 23, 2000, updated at 11:25(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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U.S. Federal Agents Remove Cuban Boy From RelativesThe U.S. Justice Department said on early Saturday that the six-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, had been safely removed from the home of the boy's relatives in Miami and was on his way to a reunion with his father.The Justice Department made the announcement in a brief statement after the agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) snatched the boy from the house of the family in Little Havana, Miami. The Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying that the agents arrived at the house shortly after 5 a.m. (0900 GMT) to knock and kick on the door. A short time later, Elian was brought out of the home by a woman agent, put into a van and whisked away. Hundreds of people are gathering in front of the house of the Miami relatives and more are expected to swarm into the streets. The boy was flown to the Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington to reunite with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has arrived in the United States on April 6 for the reunion. The INS said the agents are explaining to Elian what happened. Elian is said to be subdued and calm. He's been given a play kit that includes toys, Play-Doh, a toy plane, a map and a watch. On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno had a 15-minute meeting with the father at the Justice Department, but she refused to set a timetable for reuniting Elian with his father. Reno, having exhausted almost all options, also had some consultations with the White House late on Friday and discussed the ways to make the boy transferred to his father. President Bill Clinton, strongly backing the boy's reunion with his father, said Thursday that Elian should be promptly and orderly reunited with his father, adding that there is "no conceivable argument" to keep Elian and his father apart after a federal appeals court ruled the boy cannot leave the United States. "I think he should be reunited with his son. That is the law and the main argument of the family in Miami for not doing so has now been removed," Clinton told reporters. Also on Friday, the boy's father asked Americans to write to Clinton and Reno to pressure them to reunite him with Elian. "The court has now said he shouldn't go back to Cuba. The Justice Department agrees with that and he (the father) has agreed to that so there now is no conceivable argument for his not being able to be reunited with his son," Clinton added. On Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued an order that keeps Elian in the United States pending an appeal for an asylum filed by the relatives in Miami for the boy. Elian was rescued on November 25 near a shipwreck in the Atlantic sea off Florida after his mother and 10 others drowned when their boat capsized. Early in the year, the INS ruled that the boy belongs to his father and should be returned to Cuba. However, the Miami relatives insist the boy should stay with them in the United States.
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