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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

CHAD - FRANCE

French adoption scandal

A group of French aid workers from the charity Zoe's Ark were apprehended by Chadian authorities as they tried to fly out 103 children. They have been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for attempted child kidnapping.

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On Oct. 25, Chadian authorities arrested members of Zoe’s Ark, a French charity, as they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France.

The group says its goals were purely humanitarian and they had taken charge of the children to save them from the conflict in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur. The Chadian government, however, maintains that Zoe’s Ark had no permission to fly the children out of Chad, and that most of the children were not orphans and had come from Chad rather than Darfur.

On Dec. 26, a Chadian court found the six French charity workers guilty of "attempted kidnapping of children” and of “breaching their civil rights". They were sentenced to eight years of hard labour.

France invoked a judicial cooperation treaty with its former colony to obtain the quick transfer home of the six aid workers. The four men and two women from French humanitarian group Zoe's Ark arrived in France on Dec. 28 and will appear on Jan. 14 before a court outside Paris to have their hard labour sentences adjusted.

For the French government, this comes at a tricky time, just as the European Union prepares to deploy its own armed forces, EUFOR, in eastern Chad to help stabilize the border region that has been shaken by the Darfur conflict.

French "humanitarians" on trial Six French citizens face up to 20 years of hard labour if found guilty of kidnapping in a trial starting Dec. 21. The affair has embarrassed the French government which enjoys good relations with Chad.

Send your questions FRANCE 24's Sophie Claudet and James André are in Chad covering the trial of the six members of Zoe’s Ark accused of child abduction.

Rony Brauman INTERVIEW
Rony Brauman from the French humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières suspects what he calls an "alarmist" discourse on Darfur led to this scandal.

France and Chad's relationship France's long-standing relations with Chad was shaken by a French charity’s attempt to airlift 103 children out of the African country.

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