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 Re: عاجل:السلطات التشادية تلقي القبض علي مجموعة أوربية اختطفت 103 طفلا من دارفور لتبنيهم ( فيد (Re: Mohamed Abdelmotalib Hassan)
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CHAD
Zoe's Ark stranded in Chad
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The 16 Europeans accused of the kidnapping of 103 African children will be "held accountable for their actions" in Chad, the French ambassador there said on Sunday. (Report: N. Rushworth)France 24 - Africa NewsSunday, October 28, 2007
By France24.com with wires
The charity workers responsible for the aborted operation to bring 103 alleged Darfur orphans to France “will be held accountable for their actions” in Chad, said French ambassador Bruno Foucher, calling the operation “absolutely illegal”.
Nine French citizens – members of a French organization called Zoe's Ark and three journalists – and seven Spanish crew members were still in custody on Sunday at the central police station the eastern city of Abeche. They expected to be informed of the charges against them by Monday.
Their arrest came on Thursday as they were preparing to fly the children from Chad to France to put them in the care of families there. In Chad, as in many Muslim countries, adoption – including international adoption – is illegal.
Chadian officials say the group had no authorization to fly the children - originally believed to be from the troubled neighboring region of Darfur - out of the country.
After interviewing the children, UNICEF said they appeared to be Chadian and were not orphans.
“We wanted to rescue them from death”
But in the eastern French city of Vatry, French and Belgium donor families who had paid significant sums to have the children flown out of Africa, angrily denied that the children were being brought to Europe for adoption.
“We are not adoption candidates, because legally, it’s not possible,” said Pierre-Yves, who did not give his family name, in an interview with FRANCE 24 at the Vatry airport. “We would like to work within our legal options. We are only host families.”
Dismissing the accusations of trafficking as baseless, Pierre-Yves defended the motives of the host families. “These children are dying because no one does anything for them. We wanted to break this shameful silence. That’s all we wanted to do.”
"In no way were we seeking to adopt a child. We just wanted to offer a temporary family to a child who at a given moment in time had great need of one," said Andre Loudieres, 47, who drove nine hours from the southern town of Rodez to meet the plane.
Stephanie Lefebvre, secretary-general of Zoe's Ark, insisted the charity acted out of compassion and denied any plan to keep the children for adoption.
"There has never -- I repeat -- never been any question of us being an adoption agency. These children were not intended for adoption. Our motives were simple: we just wanted to rescue them from death," she said.
French officials issued warnings back in August
But a senior French official said the families had been warned of concerns about Zoe’s Ark’s activities in August, saying there was no guarantee that the children were helpless orphans, casting doubt on the project's legality.
In an interview with FRANCE 24 Thursday, Rama Yade, France's secretary of state for human rights, said: "I am very worried about these families who trusted an association, and whom I warned at the beginning of the month of August. Now we are in a situation where we have pressed charges and we are completely on the defensive because this operation has no legality."
"We knew about them and we've already given them a warning,” she said. “We have been watching them closely. They have ignored our recommendations and our warnings. We know how to deal with them."
Families paid ‘more than a million euros’ in total
French diplomatic officials say Zoe’s Ark had initially said the children were for adoption, but had later retracted the adoption claim.
"They (Zoe’s Ark) explained that these children would first be housed in
France, and we understand that they then explained to the (host) families that there would be a legal battle afterwards to have them adopted," said a French diplomat.
"We believe they paid between 2,800 and 6,000 (euros) ... to receive a child," he said.
"There are around 300 families that contributed and when you do the multiplication, if we are not mistaken, that's a little more than a million euros," he added.
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Mohamed Abdelmotalib Hassan
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست