Rune is adopted from Chile: “It’s not too funny”
The Chilean adopted children are pleased that the National Board of Appeal is now investigating the case, but the time horizon is worrying.
Faxe, Denmark – 14 September 2020 at 19:27
By Morten Chas Overgaard
Contact the editors: sndk@sn.dk
Source of this article: SN.dk (Danish written)
In early January, Rune Renato Hansen from Tølløse received a call from his friend Christina Birkemose – a call that was to turn his life upside down. Christina Birkemose, mayoral candidate for the Social Democrats in Faxe Municipality, had seen a program on the BBC about Chilean children who had been stolen from their parents and adopted to the United States and Europe under the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet, and then she came to think of her friend from Tølløse, who had been adopted from Chile.
From there, a process began, where Rune Renato Hansen and Christina Birkemose sat down to investigate his case, and in February DAGBLADET was able to tell the story that Rune Renato Hansen was probably stolen from his biological parents as a child.
At the time, the rug was ripped away under the Chilean-born Dane, and he has subsequently tried to come to terms with his feelings. “I was in shock and emotionally I could not find my way around. At first I was mad and angry. I am not anymore, but it has not gotten any easier. Now I just have a really sad feeling when I dig into the past, and it is not understandable that people can be this way,” says Rune Renato Hansen, who is pleased that the National Board of Appeal is involved in the case. .
He has been in contact with many other Chilean adopted children since February, and it has been an experience that has taken a heavy toll on him.
“It is fantastic! This is the news we have been waiting for for half a year. There are so many emotions at all levels and it has been extremely hard to look the others in the eye and hear all these stories when you yourself have been so vulnerable, so we really need a clarification” he says.
A race against time
Rune Renato Hansen is happy that Astrid Krag emphasizes that the adoptive families have no guilt in the case if it turns out that the children have been stolen by the Chilean dictatorship, because it is not only the children who are victims in the case.
“It is a whole family that is affected. I have had some good conversations with my sister and both of my adoptive parents because they were just as shaken and shocked as I was”, he says.
The case is now to be investigated, but Rune Renato Hansen and some of the other Chilean adopted children have previously been in contact with the National Board of Appeal, and here the message was that such an investigation may well take at least half a year.
The Corona situation is far from under control in Chile, and although Rune Renato Hansen is satisfied that the case is now to be investigated, he fears what may happen to the families of the stolen children while the investigation takes place.
“I feel that it may well be that you are really busy in the National Board of Appeal, but we are in a situation where we may have a chance to find our family. But as the situation looks in Chile at the moment, there is every day an opportunity for that chance to disappear. It is almost unbearable to think that some of us can lose family members that we never get in touch with because we have had other things to do. So you have to have some important tasks if you are not to prioritize our case. For us, it’s about finding our family, and this is not too fun”, he says.
During Pinochet, 111 children were sent to Denmark, and currently. there are 30 of them who have contact with each other. However, they would really like to hear from more through the Facebook group “Adopted from Chile”.
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