Index

Sunday, October 28, 2007

[wvns] Orphans from Darfur Kidnapped

The children were reportedly to be adopted by families in France who
had paid 2,800-6,000 euros to the charity


Trafficked Darfur Children
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1193049150290&pagename=Zone-English-News%2FNWELayout


N'DJAMENA — A French charity is facing a "severe punishment" in Chad
over an attempt to smuggle a hundred children from Sudan's troubled
region of Darfur to France. "Those responsible will be severely
punished," Chadian president Idriss Deby said Friday, October 26, on
flying back from Libya to sign a peace deal with rebels, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Deby described an attempt by French charity Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark)
to fly 103 Darfuri children from the eastern town of Abeche to France
as "inhumane," and "unacceptable".

Nine French citizens, mostly members of the French charity, were
arrested Thursday just before a plane carrying the children was due to
leave for France.
Three journalists were among those arrested, said sources on condition
not to be named.

Chadian authorities have accused the members of the French charity of
child trafficking.

The children, aged between one and eight years, were reportedly to be
adopted by families in France who had paid 2,800-6,000 euros
(4,000-8,600 dollars) to the organization.

The French charity described the move as a bid to "save from death"
youngsters orphaned by the Darfur conflict and have them "welcomed"
into French homes.

"Our motives were simple: we just wanted to rescue them from death,"
said Stephanie Lefebvre, secretary-general of l'Arche de Zoe.

But experts say the children would have been exploited in sex trade
and child labor in European countries.

Chad is home to about 236,000 refugees from the Darfur conflict in
Sudan across the border from its eastern regions.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 after rebel groups
attacked government targets, accusing Khartoum of neglect and
discrimination.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have been killed
because of the combined effects of war and draught while more than two
million have been displaced.

Kidnapping

France condemned the charity's operation as tantamount to "kidnapping".

"Taking them like this is in my view illegal and irresponsible," said
French secretary of state for human rights Rama Yade.
French authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.

Yade, how travelled to Darfur earlier this week, said the French
government had been aware of the charity's operation for several
months and had warned the charity that its operation in Darfur could
be breaking the law.

"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," she said.

The UN children's agency UNICEF also blasted the charity's behavior.

The Geneva-based organization said that the French charity's mission
-- dubbed Children Rescue -- "took place in violation of international
rules."
UNICEF's French chief Jacques Hintzy said that most of the 103
children were not orphans.

He told French television that he had been "shocked" by what they had
been through but were in good health.

UNICEF, whose workers have been granted access to the social center in
the eastern town of Abeche where the children are being kept, said
that all the children bear a bracelet with an identification number.

"We do not know what that signifies ...," said spokeswoman Veronique
Taveau.

"Even if a child's mother or father is dead, it's still possible they
can find other relatives who are still alive, or a household to take
them in."

===

Invisible Children
Online Documentary about Ugandan orphans

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643&q=movie&total=1281479&start=50&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3


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