CHAD: Children at the heart of abduction scandal are looked after in Abeche orphanage as Chad stays firm on Zoe's Ark trial

In the eastern town of Abeche, from where the Zoe's Ark chairty workers had planned to fly 103 African children to Europe, local authorities said on Monday (November 5) they were working to reunite the infants with their families. "The parents now know that their children are in good health and that they are in Abeche. They are starting to come to us and to the administration now to find out how they can make contact with their children, and we are facilitating this," Abeche governor Tourka Ramadan Karo said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Tuesday (November 6) to go back to Chad to bring home a group of Europeans accused of abducting the 103 children, but a Chadian minister insisted they should be tried in Chad. Sarkozy flew on Sunday to the former French colony in a high-profile mission that obtained the release of three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants, part of a group of 17 Europeans arrested last month in the case of the children. But 10 still remain in custody in Chad, including six members of French humanitarian activist group Zoe's Ark who are charged with abduction and fraud for trying to fly the children out of Chad without proper authorisation. Three Spanish aircrew and a Belgian pilot are charged as accomplices. Sarkozy's pledge appeared to be at odds with the firm position expressed by Chad's Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, who, voicing popular anger over the affair, said the Europeans should be tried and punished on Chadian soil. During his mission to Chad on Sunday Sarkozy, whose government has been embarrassed by the affair, said he would rather see French people tried in French courts. France and Chad have a judicial cooperation agreement that could make it possible for the French to be tried in France. But Bachir said this would be an "insult" to the Chadian people. Anger among ordinary Chadians has been running high as evidence has emerged indicating the Zoe's Ark members concealed plans to fly the children to France when they collected the infants aged 1-10 years from villages on the Chad-Sudan border. At the same time, they told families in Europe they would be evacuating orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region for them to foster. But United Nations aid officials have said 91 of the children were not orphans and had families. If convicted, the Zoe's Ark members face possible forced labour terms of between five and 20 years. The leaders of Zoe's Ark say they were rescuing the African children from the risk of death and suffering. Aid agencies in eastern Chad fear the case may tarnish their image and hamper their efforts to help around 400,000 Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who have fled violence. Both Sarkozy and Chadian President Idriss Deby say the affair will not affect the planned deployment this month in east Chad of a European Union peacekeeping force to protect refugees, civilians and aid workers.

ITN Source | November 7, 2007

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