CHAD/FRANCE: Europeans held in Chad flown to capital for trial, laywer of accused in France say they have government's support

Europeans accused of trying to take more than 100 children out of Chad arrive in the capital N'Djamena where they could face forced labour of up to 20 years if convicted. In France, lawyers of families of the Zoe's Ark members say they have the support of the Foreign Affairs ministry. A group of 16 Europeans detained in eastern Chad for trying to take 103 children out of the African country illegally were flown under tight security to the capital N'Djamena on Friday (November 2) to face trial. The nine French and seven Spanish nationals flew aboard a Chadian military transport plane from the eastern town of Abeche, where they were arrested last week. Chad has brought abduction and fraud charges against them, saying they attempted to fly the children to Europe without permission. After arriving in the dusty western capital, the accused were driven under military escort to the central courts building to appear before Chad's chief prosecutor and the investigating judge handling their case. "Now it's the interrogations, then the tribunal will send them to see the judge, and after that they will be taken to the detention centre," said Odoungous Adoum, who's responsible for Chad's penitentiary administration. One of the French, photographer Jean-Daniel Guillou, shouted "I am being detained illegally" to other reporters. If convicted, the main accused face possible forced labour terms of five to 20 years. Six of the French are members of a group called Zoe's Ark which has said it intended to place orphans from neighbouring Sudan's war-torn Darfur region with European families for foster care. Three others are journalists. Contradicting the "war orphans" description of the children given by Zoe's Ark, U.N. and Chadian officials say most of the infants aged 1-10 years had come from families including at least one parent living on the violent Chad-Sudan border. The Spanish crew of the plane chartered by Zoe's Ark to fly the children, and a Belgian pilot, are among those detained. President Idriss Deby has held out the hope that the French reporters and the air hostesses from the Spanish crew could be released soon if it is proved they were not directly involved in committing any offence. The transfer from Abeche took place after Chad's Supreme Court ruled that an N'Djamena court should handle their case. The affair of the children in Chad is an embarrassment to former colonial ruler France, which is an ally of Deby and has troops and aircraft stationed in the landlocked country. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has personally appealed to Deby to free the French journalists and urged a mutually satisfactory solution, "so that no one loses face". In a message sent to his family by e-mail via the French embassy in Chad, photographer Guillou described his detention as "a bad dream". "I'm in good health and good spirits," he said. Deby on Thursday said the case would have no impact on France's relations with Chad, including French-sponsored plans to deploy a European Union peacekeeping force in eastern Chad to protect refugees and aid workers there. International outrage over the case has increased as evidence has emerged that the 21 girls and 82 boys were not the destitute Darfuri orphans the Zoe's Ark group said they were. Protests over the affair of the children, some criticising France, have taken place in Sudan and Chad. Some of the children told journalists they were lured from villages on the Chad-Sudan border with offers of sweets or schooling. Some parents said they were persuaded by foreigners to give up their children for promised education in nearby towns, but no one had mentioned flying the children to France. Some French families have said they were waiting to foster Darfur orphans evacuated by Zoe's Ark and that they had paid up to 2,000 euros or more as a "donation" towards costs. Foreign relief workers fear the case could tarnish their image among the local population in east Chad, where around 400,000 Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadian civilians have fled several years of political and ethnic conflict. In Paris, relatives of Zoe's Ark members held talks with French foreign affairs secretary Rama Yade for more than two hours on Friday at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. The lawyer for the NGO members said he was happy to have the support of the French diplomacy: "We have the support of the foreign ministry from now on. We have it. we were just told that. Until now we didn't but now we have the foreign ministry's support." said Gilbert Collard after a meeting at the foreign affairs ministry. Collard said the NGO wanted the best for the children, but that the geopolitics of the region was complicated: "It's a difficult situation if that's what you want to hear. We are facing a dangerous terrain but everyone is working hard on this, we are starting to realise that this case hasn't got the gravity it had at the start, people are starting to realise that it was a folly of their heart which was speaking, they didn't respect the bureaucracy, but they acted be generosity, this doesn't deserve forced labour." Collard added.

ITN Source | November 3, 2007

Tags:. .labour. .ethnic. .abduction. .infants. .deploy