FRANCE: French deputies question the French government for not stopping Zoe's Ark operation in Chad

French deputies hail the French government on Zoe's Ark operation in Chad and say there was a lack of communication between the Defence and the Foreign Affairs ministries. French deputies questioned the French government on Tuesday (October 30) on the Zoe's Ark case and the illegality of such an operation. Most socialist deputies wondered why the French government did not stop the operation in time. "On August 21st and September 9, the French troops conveyed members of the association as well as two tons of equipment. The request for the transport had to be required through the embassy and the information on the operation was already circulating among members of the embassy and among the expatriates in N'Djamena. I repeat, why did not you stop them doing it? asked Jean-Louis Bianco at the National Assembly. Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg asked how a government could organize an irresponsible operation leading to French citizens being detained by Chadian authorities. "This government has a responsibility in this case. Mrs Rama Yade did not at all answer Jean-Louis Bianco's question who was asking how a responsible government could organize an irresponsible operation which led to this very difficult situation. A situation where, unfortunately, we have French nationals who are in a situation as if they were taken hostages by the Chadian government," he said. UMP deputy Alex Poniatowski stressed that there was a breakdown of communication between the Defence and the Foreign Affairs Ministries that contributed to the detention. and a problem of communication between both ministries. "On one side, the Quai d'Orsay was telling the association "you are in breach of the law and we don't let you do what you want to do", and opened an inquiry. And on the other side in the field, French military units made a logistic contribution to the operation. So, there was really a problem of communication between both authorities," he said. Chad's authorities brought abduction and fraud charges on Tuesday against nine French and seven Spanish nationals they accused of illegally trying to fly 103 African children to Europe. A Chadian prosecutor said the French, members of a group called Zoe's Ark which said it wanted to place orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur with European families, faced five to 20 years hard labour if convicted in the landlocked African state. The French group has denied wrongdoing. But United Nations and French officials said it appeared many of the children, aged three to 10 years old, were from Chad and many were not orphans. Despite the embarrassment caused by the case, France said it did not expect its long-standing ties with its former colony to be hurt. Paris has troops stationed in Chad and will provide roughly half of a European Union peacekeeping force to be deployed shortly in Chad's violent eastern region. The children were now being looked after at an orphanage in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche by U.N. children's agency (UNHCR) officials who had brought them food and games. Seven Spanish crew members of the plane chartered for the operation were charged as accessories, along with two Chadians. The 16 Europeans were arrested on Thursday as they tried to fly the children out of Abeche in eastern Chad. A Belgian pilot was detained separately but was not cited in Tuesday's charges.

ITN Source | October 31, 2007

Tags:. .illegality. .eastern. .ties. .spanish. .roughly