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Chad jails French over Darfur 'child trafficking'

Fri, 2007-10-26 19:06 - Niels

from: Times Online

An attempt to fly 103 "orphans" from Darfur to homes in France ended in fiasco today when Chad jailed nine French citizens and their charity was accused of trafficking children.

As dozens of would-be host families waited in vain at an airport near Reims, confusion surrounded Children Rescue, an operation which had been publicised for months but appears to have flouted basic laws on children and immigration.

France, Chad and Unicef, the UN children's organistion, denounced the operation as illegal and a criminal inquiry was opened in Paris. But Zoe's Ark, a small charity based near Paris, insisted that it had planned the action with pure humanitarian motives to save children's lives and emphasised that they were not destined for adoption.

The affair began yesterday, when the authorities at Abeche, in eastern Chad near the Darfur border, blocked the departure of an airliner chartered by Zoe's Ark. The children, aged between 1 and 9 but mostly 4 or 5 years old, were to be the first of 1,000 children that the charity aimed to bring from the war-ravaged region of Sudan.

Six escorts and three French journalists accompanying them were accused them of child smuggling. Two of the journalists work for France 3, a state television network. One, from the CAPA photo agency, was investigating the work of the charity.

Idriss Deby, the President of Chad, visited the children at a home in Abeche today and promised "severe punishment" for what he called the "inhumane, unthinkable and unacceptable" conduct of those accompanying them. "It is a horrible act, which I say is a crime. I strongly condemn it," he said during his visit. "All administrative and judicial steps will be taken so that these people and their accomplices pay for their actions. " Chad's Interior Minister said that some of the children were Chadian and not all were orphans.

The charity said that the children had been gathered in Darfur and cared for by the charity's staff for the past month. Zoe's Ark added that Chad security forces had severely beaten its detained personnel.

The French families, who had each paid about €1,400 (£1,000), were angered to be seen as victims of fraud or exploiters of misery. "We are devastated," said Delphine Philibert, one of those waiting for the children at Reims-Vatry airport. "To think that the authorities can suspect us of playing a role in the trafficking of children is totally ignoble," she said.

Christine Peligat, 42, an education counsellor whose teacher husband was among those arrested in Chad, said that she had been hoping to welcome a five-year-old girl. "There is no doubt that this is a serious association," she said of Zoe's Ark. "This is an aberration. It's inconceivable to talk about child trafficking," she told The Times.

The French Government confirmed that it had been aware of the operation for months and had repeatedly warned Zoe's Ark, which was founded by a group of part-time firemen in 2004, to obey Sudanese and international law.

Rama Yade, a junior Foreign Minister who travelled to Darfur this week, said: "We know absolutely nothing about how these children were gathered. We don't know their origins, their nationality or the reality of their family situation. Taking them like this is illegal and irresponsible," she said. Ms Yade, who is of Senegalese origin, called for urgent relief in Darfur this week, saying that 75 children were dying of neglect and hunger there every day.

In Geneva, Unicef said the operation had broken all rules. "These children cannot be considered for international adoption and the priority should be to trace their families," said a spokeswoman. "Even if their mothers or fathers have died, it could be the case that they are able to find relatives who are still alive, and a community and home to go back to once the conflict is over," she added.

Jacques Hintzy, head of Unicef in France, said that his organisation had been in contact with the children and most appearred not to be orphans. "They are four or five years old on average. They are a little shocked obiously," he said. Unicef will try to trace their parents, he said.

Mr Hintzy said that he could not decide whether the project had been motivated by financial greed or whether it was simple recklessness. The charity, whose founder, Eric Breteau, is one of the detained, rejected media allegations that it had been seeking to profit by selling children for adoption. In France, more than 30,000 families are awaiting the chance to adopt after meeting the arduous criteria for official permission to do so.

One media report said that the Ark had collected over €1 million with its internet campaign to sign up 1,000 host families. "We never intended them to be adopted. Our action was simple," said Stephanie Lefebvre, secretary-general of the charity. "We just wanted to save them from death, by giving them a host family." About 300 families in France and Belgium had volunteered to take the orphans into their homes, Ms Lefebvre added.

Mr Breteau, a volunteer fireman, built up the charity with colleagues and friends after the Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. Contributions from across France enabled them to run a village for orphaned children in Indonesia. Over the past year, they have turned their resources to Darfur, sending medical and other personnel to care for children there.

Last month Mr Breteau told the French media: "These children's lives are threatened and there is no diplomatic or political solution for ending the massacres being perpetrated in Darfur. We have to evacuate them from the conflict zone."

Comments

Fri, 2007-10-26 19:34 — tina

It's about time a country

It's about time a country stood up and said enough is enough. I could kiss the man. Yes some children do need to be evacuated to safer places until their countries are safer for them. There are charities set up for that purpose, UNICEF, Save the Children just to name two. The name alone shouts exploitation. Noah's Ark (for the believers) was for the animals and that is exactly how those children were being treated. Prize pets for the highest bidders!

The Hague Convention states that before a person can even approach another country to adopt they must be approved to adopt in their home country and only then can a person go to another country to adopt. Once approaching the other country, they must then apply and be approved by that country also. Madonna brought baby 'David' into the UK illegally and not a eye blinked. She hadn't applied or been approved to adopt in the UK nor did she apply to Davids country. When one of our Ministers was asked about it he said, Yes its illegal but it would be very rare for them to remove the child while the case was investigated if the child appeared well cared for! Madonna should have been arrested it would have brought the plight of these children into more living rooms than anything else.

Fri, 2007-10-26 19:58 — Niels

it can get worse

There are charities set up for that purpose, UNICEF, Save the Children just to name two.

And if it is not bad enough as it is UNICEF Romania has as one it partners Holt Romania Foundation, part of Holt International, one of the largest adoption agencies in the USA.

Save the Children Finland is an international adoption agency itself.

 

Mon, 2007-10-29 23:37 — Niels

Background information

Heard this through the grape vines

Arche de Zoe is a Fench NGO set up by Eric Breteau, a French voluntary Fireman and president of the French 4x4 organisation (the very polluting cars).  His interest in children started after the Tsunami disaster, when he worked togehter with the Australian registered Ark of Zoe - which was setting op an 'orphanage' in Indonesia.

http://pompiers.argenteuil.org/actualite%20arche%20de%20zo%E9.htm

Over the last months Arche de Zoe was part of an action called "Rescue Children". They collected children from Darfour and brought them to a refugee camp in Chad. From there they were planning to bring the children to France and Belgium.

They had been solliciting French and Belgium families to look after the children - with as possibility adoption. Some 300 families had expressed interest and paid between 2.500 up to  6.000 Euros to receive a child.

The French Central Authority for Adoptiopn had warned since June that it would not be possible to adopt these children and advised families to be careful. However, they did not say the children would not be allowed to legally stay in France.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/les-francais-etranger_1296/conseils-aux-familles_3104/adoption-internationale_2605/actualites_3230/enfants-du-darfour_49970.html

Arche de Zoe had chartered a plane from a Spanish company and hired Belgian (retired) pilotes. However, they were not allowed to leave with the children by the Chad authorities.

The French press has mentioned that some French Ministers were aware and that the French military helped in transporting the children within Sudan. The French government has been denying this.

*Comments:*

See "Romania For Export only" January 2004: EC Vice President Frattini and Bernard Kouchner promoted adoption of Tsunami 'orphans' - but both were stopped/corrected.

Bernard Kouchner was the founder of Medecin du Monde, after having been expulsed from Medecins sans frontieres. He is know for his mediatisation of misery and advised Medicins du Monde, when he was Minister of Health in France, to not only deal with humanitarian aid, but also adoptions. Medecins du Monde is France's largest adoption agency.

What the book did not say, is that Frattini afterwards wanted EU legislation to allow hosting young children as political asylum cases (see below) - this idea was stopped .too...

The Darfour-Arche de Zoe action wanted to do exactly that- get children in as political asylum - later formalised as adoption

It is to be noted that all international organisations so far are against the idea of child displacement. There are very bad examples in history of this child displacements (WWII kindertransport, Vietnam, Rwanda, Ukraine to name just a view).

Arche de Zoe claimed to rescue orphans, but interviews with the children concerned have showed that many of them were taken from their families under the pretext of education and cars when eighteen, or simply lured by sweets.

Intercountry adoption is not allowed by Sudan, and the concept of adoption (changed identity, total rupture with birth family unknown as the Islam religion does not know such thing).

Italy

On January 11, the official number of Italian victims of the tsunami was 20. For the 260 missing, however, authorities cautiously warn the families to "prepare for the worst".

If the emotional impact of the tsunami catastrophe is bound to subside over time, some of its effects on the Italian political scene and public opinion may be long lasting.

[...]

Another long lasting effect may concern the Italian regulations on foster parenting. Former foreign minister Franco Frattini, now EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, repeatedly warns against the danger of illicit trafficking that may derive from the catastrophe, but is determined to find a bridge between the thousands of suffering children and the thousands of western families willing to help them. According to Frattini, eradicating the children from their environment should be avoided. But temporary foster care enables to meet the child's physical and psychological needs for a few months, while the situation in their country of origin improves and the family can be traced. Italy has the infrastructure and the families, but Italian law does not allow international foster care. At least for the moment.

Meanwhile, children can be welcomed in hospitals if they need medical care. Distant adoption is possible and is now being financed. Procedures for international adoption are being sped-up. And Frattini has another idea. The EU does foresee temporary asylum for victims of natural disasters, but such rules are only valid for adults. The Commissioner, who had already tabled a proposal on the protection of children before the disaster, would like the rule to be extended to children.

Tue, 2007-10-30 00:55 — Kerry

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

First by sea (the child migration ploy from Great Britain to Canada or to Australia, then to the U.S.); then the orphan trains.  Years later came Operation Lift/Drop-Off, that crashed and burned but inspired new forms of child placement and rearrangement (myself included, in an odd sort of way, since I was imported by plane!)

Now adoption sales are driven and inspired by the automobile market?

Please tell me this is a joke.  A poor joke.

Sun, 2007-12-23 19:47 — Niels

Zoe Ark leader: France knew about children "rescue"

Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:06pm EST
By Moumine Ngarmbassa

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - The leader of a French aid group accused of trying to kidnap 103 African children in Chad told a court on Friday France's government had known from the start about the group's plans to rescue war orphans from Darfur.

Rejecting abduction and fraud accusations against him and five other members of the Zoe's Ark group, Eric Breteau said they had taken charge of the children to save them from the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region bordering Chad.

"We didn't commit any offence," Breteau said on the opening day of the trial in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

After the group was arrested in October trying to fly the infants aged 1-10 out of east Chad to Europe, Chadian officials said they had no permission to take the children out of the country and that most were not orphans and came from Chad.

If convicted, the six could face forced labor sentences of between five to 20 years. But there is widespread expectation they could serve jail terms in France under bilateral accords, or benefit from a pardon from Chadian President Idriss Deby.

"Before the launch of our operation to save the Darfur orphans, the French authorities as a whole were informed of our actions," Breteau said. He added a network of families in France had been set up to receive the children.

The Zoe's Ark case has embarrassed France, which supports Deby's rule in landlocked Chad. It has troops stationed in its former colony and is providing the bulk of a European Union peacekeeping force to be deployed in east Chad in January.

Two months before the arrest of the six, France's Foreign Ministry issued a warning about the Zoe's Ark group, saying there was no guarantee the children involved were helpless orphans and casting doubt on the project's legality.

Wearing a shirt carrying the name of Children Rescue, under which Zoe's Ark operated in Chad, Breteau looked thin as he and the other accused have been on hunger strike for over a week, refusing food but drinking water.

He said international rights conventions sanctioned efforts to save war victims like children caught up in Darfur's conflict that has killed around 200,000 people since 2003.

"Among this civilian population, children are most vulnerable ... no one can challenge this nor challenge the legitimate need to help Darfur orphans survive," he said.

The trial continues on Saturday.

FRENCH PRESSURE

Asked by the judge why some of the children were found to be Chadian not Darfuri, and not orphans, Breteau said local intermediaries employed by Zoe's Ark had assured them the children had no living parents and came from Darfur.

Three Chadians and a Sudanese national are being tried along with the French as accomplices.

A lawyer representing parents of some of the children, who are claiming civil damages from the Zoe's Ark members, rejected Breteau's arguments. "Whether they are Darfur orphans or not, that doesn't change anything," said Ndintamaji Laminal.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he would prefer the six French to be tried in France.

Riot police were on standby outside the court in the dusty Chadian capital, where angry protests have occurred against what many Chadians see as French interference in the case.

A defense lawyer for the six, Gilbert Collard, told reporters that politics was "omnipresent" in the case.

Chadian and U.N. officials said inquiries showed most of the 103 children in the case had at least one living parent and came from villages on the Chad-Sudan border.

The parents of several children said they had been duped by the Zoe's Ark workers into giving up their infants with the promise of schooling for them in east Chad -- but that there had never been any mention of taking them away to France.

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia) 

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