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Zoe's Ark case seen hindering U.N. work in Chad
By Stephanie Hancock Tue Nov 13, 3:53 PM ET
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - The deputy head of the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday
a French group's attempt to fly African children to Europe was "disgusting" and
had created a climate of suspicion hampering U.N. operations.
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U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Craig Johnstone said he expected
tensions with the local population in violence-torn eastern Chad would calm
quickly and should not interfere with the deployment of a European peacekeeping
force.
Six members of the French organization Zoe's Ark remain in custody in Chad on
charges of fraud and abduction after they were detained on October 25 in the
eastern town of Abeche trying to
transport 103 children to Europe in an operation Chad authorities said was
illegal.
"What they did was really disgusting,"
Johnstone
told a news conference in the Chadian capital N'Djamena. "For the moment, there
is certainly a negative impact because the local population has become very
suspicious.
"But I think in the long term the situation will calm down ... and I think
things will improve fairly soon."
U.N. agencies in eastern Chad are struggling to cope with a humanitarian crisis
caused by the spillover from the neighboring Darfur region of Sudan, where
international experts estimate a 4-1/2 year conflict has killed some 200,000
people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
A 4,000-strong EU peacekeeping force is due to deploy in the coming weeks in
eastern Chad to protect the civilian population, amid
growing ethnic tensions between the Arab
and Black African population.
Johnstone said more money was needed to support the UNHCR's operations in both
Chad and Sudan, particularly for the internally displaced.
The former U.S. diplomat, appointed to his post in April, said the members of
Zoe's Ark had duped both the Chadian government and United Nations officials by
claiming they were flying sick and
destitute orphans from Darfur
for foster care in Europe.
U.N. officials have subsequently said that almost all of the children were from
Chad, had been living with at least one of their parents, and were in good
health.
Relatives of the children, who were aged between 1 and 10, told reporters in
Abeche that the Zoe's Ark workers told them they were taking the infants for
schooling and they would be back in a week. Some of the children said they had
been lured from their homes with sweets.
Seven Spanish air crew, three French journalists and a Belgian pilot who were
arrested with the aid workers have been released by Chadian authorities, who
said they could not be linked to the
alleged fraud and abductions.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Charles Dick)
$3500
FRENCH PRESIDENT FREES CHILD TRAFFICKERS ARRESTED IN CHAD
by keith harmon snow (Posted by Georgianne Nienaber) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
Stolen children
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: Opinions
PrintEmail DoubleClick Any Word Page 1 of 1 Zoe's Ark, a charity organization
established in France by Eric Breteau in 2005, certainly managed to make a
splash two weeks ago on both the European and African continents. But without a
flood, what was the ark attempting to
save 103 children from? Well homelessness, poverty and orphaning of
course! Unfortunately, most of these boys and girls weren't saved, but rather
taken from loving families. With the high demand for adopted children in France,
Breteau appealed to humanitarian families looking not only to adopt a child, but
also to rescue a life from the war-torn Darfur region in Sudan.
Early on, the government questioned the
organizations plans to take payments of over $3,500 for eager parents and later
provide them with an African child. However, until late, Breteau and
Zoe's Ark seemed to be running a legitimate operation.
Zoe's Ark has been accused of taking children from Chad, not Sudan, as promised,
and asking impoverished mothers whether they could take their children to get a
better education, not specifying that would involve them being given to French
families. In the event that these beliefs prove true, it is unquestionably
disgusting how the sacred bond between parent and child is being capitalized on.
One has to feel for parents on both sides who simply were thinking about the
best interest of these children. The entire ordeal is a massive exploitation of
good intentions, gone horribly wrong. International adoption, in some capacity,
is taking a turn for the worst. Lives shouldn't be seen as mere supply and
demand, but at this point, it doesn't seem as if the distinction is being made
between kids and commodities. Now the lives of these children hang in the
balance of a United Nations authorities and Chad social workers to be put back
together piece by piece.
Kidnapping or salvation?
November 07 2007 at 12:14PM
By Pascal Fletcher
The sight of frightened, bewildered children torn from their homes by wars or
poverty is one of the most recurringly haunting faces of Africa.
But the case of 103 African children who
were to be flown out of Chad to Europe by a French group has touched raw nerves
on the continent, where the trafficking of minors is still widespread and
the slave trade is remembered with horror.
It has also sparked a fierce and morally complex debate between those who
believe the children would be better off in Europe, far from Africa's sufferings
and conflicts, and those outraged at the way they were taken from their African
families.
UN says they were not 'war orphans' from Sudan's Darfur as claimed by the Zoe's
Ark group
UN officials say the children, aged between one and 10 years, whose tearful
faces have appeared on TV screens across the world, were not "war orphans" from
Sudan's Darfur as claimed by the Zoe's Ark group that had them in their charge.
Nine French nationals, mostly members of Zoe's Ark, were arrested in east Chad
last week after authorities stopped them from flying the children out. The group
has denied wrongdoing, saying it wanted to place the children in foster care
with French families and had the right to do so under international law.
But Chad said they had no authorisation to take the children. The French have
been charged with abduction and fraud and face possible forced labour terms of
up to 20 years if convicted.
Seven Spanish air crew members, a pilot
from Belgium and at least two
Chadians have been charged as
accessories.
A Chadian investigation is under way to
determine whether the Zoe's
Ark group were well-meaning philanthropists who broke the rules, or whether
their purpose was more mercantile or sinister.
Told reporters they were lured from their homes with offers of sweets and
biscuits
"Was it to sell (the children) to paedophiles? Or to take their organs to resell
them?" Chadian President Idriss Deby has asked.
In Chad, and elsewhere in Africa, the case has kindled anger.
"The slavers of yesterday are modernising their methods. Today, Europeans pass
themselves off as dubious humanitarians, (saying) 'We've come to save your
children from certain death' and they're taken away," said prominent Chadian
opposition politician Ngarlejy Yorongar in a statement.
International radio and TV shows and websites have carried an intense debate
over the fate of the children.
"For me, these children were in danger, in a genocide zone. Something had to be
done for them," an African-born listener called Michel told a Radio France
International phone-in show.
"I think Zoe's Ark were clumsy but they can't be completely condemned," another
listener, Lynette, said.
She said her family was one of those planning to foster a child and paid more
than €2 000 (R19 000) as a "donation" to cover logistics and reception costs.
Others had sharply different views.
"Please, Europeans, our children are not for sale," said Okeke Cyprian from
Mauritania in an e-mail to the BBC Have Your Say website.
"I will gladly give out my child for adoption (rather) than for her to die of
starvation, malnutrition, lack of medical attention ... or for her to be
uneducated," said Mah Estela from Cameroon, e-mailing in to the same programme.
"The Chadian government is making a loud noise now, but they did nothing to
provide a better future for those kids... Africa, wake up and face reality," she
wrote from Douala.
While the involvement of white Europeans may inject a dose of xenophobia into
the controversy, UN officials say unlawful smuggling of children over borders is
common in West Africa.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says poor security and poverty create the
conditions for tens of thousands of West African children and women to be
trafficked each year for labour and sexual exploitation both in Africa and
overseas.
"In a conflict situation, children that
are already vulnerable to be trafficked are 10 times more vulnerable,"
said UNODC's representative in West Africa Antonio Mazzitelli.
"It seems to me that this NGO (Zoe's Ark) was wrong, if it didn't have
authorisation. You can't just take more
than 100 children away, without the consent of their parents, even in a
conflict situation," he said.
Some of the children in Chad, whom UN officials say came from villages on the
border with Sudan, told reporters they were lured from their homes with offers
of sweets and biscuits.
Parents looking for missing children said foreigners came to their border
villages and promised education
opportunities to persuade them to allow the children to be taken to local
towns - but they never imagined they were headed for France.
Mazzitelli said trafficking of children in West Africa often took advantage of a
cultural tradition of placing children outside the home to secure them better
education and jobs.
"We see families handing over kids to third persons, mostly relatives, but also
to others who promise to educate them and offer work.
"But it has become more and more business-oriented and exploitative," he said.
"There are cases of people going from
village to village promising they will give the kids an education and
jobs... and then they put them into forced labour," he added.
This included West African children trafficked to work on cocoa farms, or being
pressed into abusive domestic service or prostitution in Europe, the Middle East
or the United States. - Reuters