FRANCE: Lawyer for French citizens detained in Chad child case denies accusations

Accusations that orphans in Chad were being abducted and taken to Europe for paedophilia rings or for organ trafficking are completely untrue says the lawyer representing French citizens detained in Chad. Lawyers acting for the nine French citizens held in Chad on Monday (October 29) denounced the Chad President's accusations that the French citizens were abducting the children for paedophilia rings or for organ trafficking. The nine French citizens are part of a group of 17 Europeans accused by authorities in Chad of trying to smuggle 103 children from Africa to Europe. Speaking at a news conference in Marseille, Lawyer Gilles Collart, who is acting for the detained French citizens, said that the accusations were untrue. "What is completely inconceivable, and it's not hard to see this, is that the welcoming families are paedophiles. Nor do they want to do organ trafficking," Collart said, "What is being said in Chad is exagerated, overstated. Why? Because we are in a very delicate political context, the peace force is about to deploy, and we know that the Chad government doesn't want this and that he wants to control the zone." he added. Collard went on th explain that the operation to help orphans in Chad was completely open and not secretive in any way. "Children are suffering, even if you're not smartly dressed, we rescue them." One of the detained French citizens, Marc Garmirian, is a journalist who was covering the story. A news conference was also held in Paris at Capa news agency's office where Garmirian works to call for his liberation. "Marc was working as a journalist on this story. A journalist covering an event should never be mixed up with the event itself and therefore should never be treated as an acomplice on a judiciary and moral level with the event he is covering," said William Bourdon, a lawyer at the news agency who is representing Garmirian. Head of Capa News Agency, Herve Chabalier went on to explain why the operation was being covered by Garmirian in Chad. "From the start, the aim of bringing 1,000 children from Darfur to France appeared impossible to us, even baroque. This is why we got interested into this organisation to find out whether they would achieve their goal or not, and in what conditions." Chabalier explained. The charity group "Zoe's Ark", which planned the operation, said the operation offered a better life to orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, many of whose people have fled over the border to camps in Chad. But some children have said their parents are still alive, and they were lured from their villages on the Chad-Sudan border with offers of sweets and biscuits. The French government has repeatedly condemned the operation and France's ambassador to Chad said on Sunday those involved would have to face Chadian justice. France's Foreign Ministry issued a warning about Zoe's Ark in August, saying there was no guarantee the children were helpless orphans and casting doubt on the project's legality. French daily Le Figaro quoted a local journalist who had been allowed to see, but not speak to, the detainees as saying they seemed weakened but did not appear to have suffered from mistreatment.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

Tags:. .legality. .goal. .foreign. .suffering. .suffered