N.O.R.F Posted October 30, 2007 Prison 'likely' in Chad child row The workers say they were assured that the children were orphans Chad's interior minister has said six French aid workers are likely to go to prison after attempting to fly more than 100 children out of eastern Chad. Ahmat Mahamat Bachir told the BBC that a judge was expected to lay charges of child abduction against the workers. Ten other people have been detained, including seven Spanish crew of the plane that was to be used by the charity, known as Zoe's Ark. The charity has denied it planned to sell the children for adoption. It has said the 103 children are orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. France is a good mother, we will be with these French nationals to protect them as far as we can Rama Yade, French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Children's trauma Profile: Zoe's Ark However staff from the UN children's agency Unicef say many of the children, now being kept in an orphanage in Abeche, cry at night for their parents and say they are from villages in Chad. Mr Bachir said the case would go before a judge on Monday. "They made fake visas, which means they forged the documents. For us, abduction is more than a crime. They could be put in jail for several years. "They committed the offence in Chad, so they would be imprisoned in Chad of course, it's very probable," he said. The French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, Rama Yade, said the planned operation by the charity was "irresponsible" but that France would offer its citizens "maximum consular assistance". The children are not being treated for any serious illnesses or injuries "France is a good mother, we will be with these French nationals to protect them as far as we can, to guarantee their rights and we will never leave them," she told Europe 1 radio. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the charity workers' actions were illegal and unacceptable. Chad's President Idriss Deby has promised "severe punishment" for what he has described as a "kidnapping" or "child-trafficking" operation. Denying it planned to sell the children for adoption, Zoe's Ark says it was given statements from tribal leaders that all the children were Darfur orphans with no known relatives. The charity insists it was trying in good faith to take endangered children abroad for medical treatment. However, a BBC reporter says the children appear to be in good health. On the runway The BBC's Stephanie Hancock was among a group of reporters taken by Chadian authorities to the airport at Abeche, a town close to the Sudanese border, and shown the private charter plane still sitting on the runway where it was abandoned three days ago. The reporters were later taken to the local police headquarters to see the 16 detained Westerners - six French charity-workers, three French journalists and a seven-strong Spanish crew. They are not being held in prison cells but in a large room and are showing no signs of mistreatment, our correspondent says. The seven Spaniards among the group are the plane's two pilots and five air stewards. Spanish media have reported they are employees of the Barcelona-based charter company, Girjet. The company said it had provided transport for the charity but was not otherwise involved in the plan, reports said. 'Chadian children' The reporters were also taken to the orphanage where the children are being cared for by aid workers and UN staff. Aid workers confirmed they were not treating any of the children for any serious illnesses or injuries. The vast majority of the children are believed to be between three and five years old, with the oldest about eight or nine, and several babies no more than one and a half, our correspondent says. The president of the French national committee for Unicef said 48 of the children questioned so far appeared to be Chadian, not Sudanese. "Our impression is that the majority aren't orphans, but at this stage it's just an impression," Jacques Hintzy told Radio Television Luxembourg. A Paris court began investigating the charity last Tuesday after receiving a report about the unauthorised action. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7067228.stm Aduunyo! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
underdog Posted October 31, 2007 Child trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business. European and Middle-eastern pedophile need their supply of fresh African children. Wasn't there a story about boat-loads of kids disappearing from Somalia a few years ago? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ibtisam Posted October 31, 2007 I saw that on BBC as well!! What the hell were they thinking?? 100kids! Some of the kids were crying and this little boy was like, "they spoke to my dad and took me from him!!" It is sad that in some places parents are exchanging their kids! :rolleyes: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blessed Posted October 31, 2007 ^Some of those parents are mislead to beleive that their children will be given a better life. It's really sad. These people are so disgusting, I remember reading reports of how some Europeans went to Asia after the Tusunami, purely to kidnap orphans. I hope they lock them and let die a slow painful death. :mad: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seekknowledge Posted October 31, 2007 If the Chad government and other African government took care of their citizens instead of stealing and killing these people would never have access to african children. Look at Somalia they fight over power so they can steal more and more and in the process they are killing and displacing children. As soon as a foreign country invades them they start demonstrations all over the world crying we are invaded help help. Who killed and raped for over 16 years? Who displaced the innocent people? Who destroyed the country? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
underdog Posted October 31, 2007 Lets start a "Prediction Chart" I Predict, France threatens to withhold some AID and all the kidnappers are "released due to lack of proper evidence" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted October 31, 2007 I predict a similar outcome. The Chad Govnt to be paid off and promises made on aid and development. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nuune Posted October 31, 2007 20 years prison is not enough, excute them, show them no mercy as they cramped more than 100 children on a small Foker plane Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
-Nomadique- Posted November 1, 2007 The saga continues... Children in Chad abduction row say they have parents: aid agencies ABECHE, Chad (AFP) — International aid agencies on Thursday rejected the war orphan label attached to 103 children at the centre of a child abduction scandal involving a French charity in Chad. In a joint statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF said 91 of the children had spoken of coming from a "family environment with at least one adult in a parental role ". "Therefore they cannot be considered to be orphans," ICRC spokeswoman Anna Schaaf told AFP in Geneva. Schaaf said questioning of the children suggested that most of them were in fact Chadians. Chad's security forces have arrested 19 people since a small French charity, Zoe's Ark, attempted to fly the children to France, believing they were orphans from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur across the desert border. Nine French nationals -- six members of the charity and three journalists -- face a forced labour sentence on charges of kidnapping and extortion, while seven Spanish flight crew are charged with complicity. A Belgian pilot of 75 was also charged on Wednesday because he had flown the children from the border settlement of Adre to the main eastern town of Abeche, where the Zoe's Ark people were arrested on October 25. The charity workers have rejected any suggestion of a kidnap operation, saying they had acted in good faith, believing they were saving Darfurese children from certain death. The relief agencies' statement said most of the children appeared to have come from villages along the Chad-Sudan border, which is a porous area that has for years been wracked not only by an influx of hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees but Chadian rebel insurgency and ethnic strife. "Most of the children are Chadian, but not all," said Schaaf. The statement said relief workers had spent days talking to the 21 girls and 82 boys aged between one and about 10. "From the information gathered, they live in villages on Chad's territory, but we don't know if they originate from these villages. We can't tell what their nationality is," Schaaf said. For the Chad government, the origin of the children is a moot point. "Whatever the case, whether the children are Chadian or Sudanese, the (Zoe's Ark) operation took place in Chad. That's what matters," a senior Chadian official who asked not to be named told AFP on Thursday. The Belgian pilot has been jailed in N'Djamena, while the other arrested Europeans are still in police custody in Abeche. French President Nicolas Sarkozy late Wednesday again urged Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno to free the journalists, a Chadian judicial source said, but a senior official said "we're being asked to twist the arm of justice." The affair has embarrassed France, the former colonial power in Chad. France maintains a military base in Chad and later this month is due to take charge of a European peacekeeping force there to protect some 300,000 Darfur refugees and displaced locals. The French military has acknowledged providing assistance to members of Zoe's Ark in Chad, but only in the form of on-the-spot humanitarian aid for children in very bad physical shape. Thursday's statement from the relief agencies said that none of them were in a "worrying state, for now, of health. Some have received care for benign injuries." source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Modesty Posted November 2, 2007 This is so sad, but i'm happy they caught these thieves. Look at them trying to steal African children to make them into probable sex slaves or actual slaves to French people! They obviously assumed these children are worthless and no one would look for them. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billy1944 Posted November 2, 2007 The French again with the arrogancy of white superiority has made a horrific mistake. Were the children to be killed for their organs or given over to grow up as servants is the question I asked. Either way, it was an illegal act deserving serious punishment alone with a hefty fine for all the guilty. These childrens were being stolen from their families. We must always remember that white people are our only permanent enemy; and we must begin to relate to them with that as a mindset. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
