French citizens arrested in 103 child darfur-region kidnappi

[Fash]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/30/africa/chad.php

NDJAMENA, Chad: The authorities said Tuesday that they had charged six French citizens with kidnapping after a failed attempt to fly 103 children out of Chad. A charity said the children were orphans from Sudan's war-battered Darfur region.

Interior Minister Ahmat Bachir said that if they were found guilty, they would face up to 20 years in jail with hard labor. Prisoners in Chad are often put to work for the state.

A judge in the eastern city of Abeche also agreed late Monday to allow prosecution charges of complicity against three French journalists, said Justice Minister Pahimi Padacket Albert.

A seven-person flight crew also would be charged with complicity, he said. The accused are to be flown this week to the capital Ndjamena.

Officials in Chad detained 17 people - nine of them French - after the French charity tried to put the children on a plane last week.

L'Arche de Zoé, or Zoé's Ark, said it had arranged French host families for the children to save them from possible death in Sudan's western Darfur region. More than four years of conflict there have left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced - many to eastern Chad.

Unicef's representative in Chad, Mariam Coulibaly Ndiaye, said officials were interviewing the children Monday to learn more about their origins and whether they were truly orphans.

Chad's president, Idriss Deby, denounced the action as a "straightforward kidnapping" and promised punishment for those involved. The French authorities also have condemned the charity's plans.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called Deby this weekend to discuss the case, which unfolded as the European Union prepares a peacekeeping force in Chad and the Central African Republic to help refugees along their borders with Darfur. France has led the push for the peacekeepers, and the uproar over the charity's actions risked complicating efforts to ensure a smooth start for the force, which Chad initially had resisted.

But Chad has assured France that a debacle over a charity's effort to remove children from the country will not affect plans to deploy the EU peacekeepers.

In France, police searched the charity's offices as well as the apartment of its founder as part of an inquiry into whether the group broke adoption laws, police officials said. The group initially promised some families that they could adopt - not merely host - children from Darfur, French officials have said.

No idea what's going on here! They're not giving this charity any benefit of the doubt, so one would think they already know they were in the wrong.

Why do people want to adopt foreign babies, anyways?

[Lalanae]

Why do people want to adopt foreign babies, anyways?

Because some people know that a child doesn't have to be biologically theirs to love it unconditionally. Because some people can't have children of their own. Because some people recoginize that there are far too many people in the world already to have more. Because there are a lot of terribly impoverished, orphaned children all over the world and some people can give them good lives.

Are you really asking that question?

I admire people who adopt, certainly 2763872638172 times more than those who spit out kids willy-nilly. At least those who want kids and adopt are taking a more logical approach.

[Arborealus]

I admire people who adopt, certainly 2763872638172 times more than those who spit out kids willy-nilly.

We need to have a talk about where babies come from Lala...Oral sex does not lead to childbirth even if you do swallow!

[Fash]

Are you really asking that question?

Yeah, it was bait to encourage some sort of conversation. Thanks for taking it and responding eloquently.

[Fairweather Pure]

I have 3 adopted siblings. My little brother is American, and I have 2 sisters. One is from Russia, the other is from China. The adoption process in America is a fucking sick joke. Every single person is in it for money. My brother cost my parents around 35,000$, while my Russian sister was around 10,000$ and my Chinese sister was less than 7,000$.

My parents were denied adoption rights for a black child here in the states because it would infringe on the child's heritage. I'm not even kidding. There are thousands of black children awaiting adoption on any given day. No one wants them. The whole process makes me sick.

So, to answer your question, that is why people want foreign babies. It's cheap, it's easy, and the original mother isn't going to show up on your doorstep wanting her baby back.

[Ashur]

I was free. My parents had a "BOGO" coupon for me and my twin brother.

[Boogahz]

story with a tad more detail

From http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,214 ... 73,00.html

Chad Charges Europeans with Kidnapping Children From Africa

Authorities in Chad brought charges against 17 Europeans from three countries after a thwarted attempt to fly 103 children, said to have been Darfur orphans, to France.

Chadian authorities said Tuesday, Oct. 30, they had charged six French nationals, who were employees of an aid agency, with attempted kidnapping.

An mob of several dozen people gathered outside the court house in Abeche, calling the Europeans "thieves, killers", and accusing former colonial power France of being an "accomplice."

Citizens of Spain and Belgium have also been charged as accomplices, the Associated Press reported. They could face decades in prison, including hard labor, if found guilty.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said Tuesday that France was sending a doctor and legal adviser to meet with the group's detained members.

The six were employees of a French aid group called L'Arche de Zoe, or Zoe's Arc, and were arrested Thursday as they were preparing to leave with the children from Abeche, an eastern city near Chad's border with Sudan.

The aid workers have insisted that they were told the children were orphans from Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur, which borders Chad. The workers said they were taking the children out of the country to France to receive medical treatment.

However, an investigation, partly involving United Nations workers, revealed that none of the children was injured. Investigators also found that many of the children may not have been orphans.

Zoe's Arc said it had arranged for French host families to care for the children, but the organization denied charges that the children were to be given up for adoption. According to the AFP news agency, some of the families each paid between 2,800 euros and 6,000 euros ($4,000 and $8,600), supposedly for the evacuation costs of the children.

French police have reportedly been investigating the activities of Zoe's Arc since July.


Other nationals charged

Chadian authorities in the eastern city Abeche have also charged three French journalists, who were accompanying the aid workers, with complicity in the case.

A further seven -- of the Spanish flight crew from the aircraft that was to fly the children to France -- as well as the Belgian pilot have been charged as accomplices, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported.

RFI said it was unclear whether two Chadian nationals arrested with the 16 Europeans had also been charged with complicity.

Chad's Interior Minister Ahmat Bachir said the accused would be flown to the capital N'Djamena this week.


EU forces in Darfur-Chad region not at risk

Meanwhile, the French government has said a multinational European Union force in the Darfur-Chad border region would not be jeopardized.

"This affair has absolutely nothing to do with the deployment of the multinational force," French Junior Minister for Human Rights, Rama Yade, told Europe 1 Radio, according to the DPA news agency.

Over the weekend, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Zoe's Arc's actions were "illegal and unacceptable." He also said he had spoken with Chadian President Idriss Deby.

Deby himself has described the actions of the aid workers as "simple kidnapping." He also accused the French organization of wanting to "sell (the children) to pedophile organizations in Europe, and even perhaps to kill them and sell their organs," according to DPA.

However, Deby also reportedly told Sarkozy that the affair would not affect the deployment of 3,000 European troops, half of whom are French, scheduled to arrive in eastern Chad and the northern region of the Central African Republic in November. The soldiers are to help safeguard camps holding refugees fleeing Darfur.

More than four years of conflict there have left more than 200,000 people and 2.5 million people displaced.

The 103 children who were on their way to France are currently in an orphanage in Abeche, where they are being cared for by local aid workers and UNICEF staff.

As noted here, the charity was also under investigation before they pulled this 'stunt.'