 |
| Eric Breteau, head of the French charity Zoe's Ark (2nd l.), is seen with members of his team after being taken into custody
by Chadian authorities on Oct. 26. Presidential Press Office of Chad/Reuters |
'Orphan' debacle in Chad raises risk to aid efforts
A small group's effort to sneak children out of the country to Europe sparks local anger.
from the October 31, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 2
Page 1 | 2
Almost from the moment it landed in Chad, the group's ideas for helping children changed. Members set up a camp on the border between Chad and Sudan, in a village called Adre, operated under a new name, and begin hiring local villagers to identify and rescue children in need. It shifted goals from saving starving children, to saving orphans, to helping injured children.
French media yesterday reported that local middlemen working on behalf of Zoe's Ark did not go into Sudan, but found children in local villages in Chad. Many were, apparently, not orphans, and many were Chadian. Some parents may have been given promises of a fine life in France for their children.
"These associations [like Zoe's Ark] can easily discredit us on the ground, in places like Darfur, where we have spent a lot of time trying to gain the trust of the locals," says the Médecins du Monde official.
On Oct. 22, Chad airport officials gave the clearance for a Spanish-rented plane to land.
The Darfur issue has played with no small drama or interest in France, a place where many large-scale protests against international indifference to the tragedy have taken place in the past two years.
Yesterday, a senior French official commented that while such groups as Zoe's Ark can't be supported if the local government finds illegality, still, "about 75 children on average die each day there."
French police searched the charity's offices and the founder's apartment as part of an inquiry into whether the group broke adoption laws, police officials said. Chad charged seven Spanish crew members of the chartered plane as accessories, along with two Chadians.
Christophe Letien, spokesman for the charity, insisted its intentions were merely humanitarian.
"The team is made up of firemen, doctors and journalists," he said at a news conference. "It's unimaginable that doubts are being cast on these people of good faith, who volunteered to save children from Darfur."
Next month, more than 3,000 European soldiers are scheduled to arrive in Chad, half whom are whom are from France. Chad has assured France that the Zoe's Ark incident will not affect plans to deploy the peacekeepers, a French official said Monday.
The dispute over the effort to take the children out of Chad has resonated powerfully in Chad. In Abéché, in eastern Chad, the fury is palpable."I'm angry and all the people here are angry," says police commissioner Idriss Mahmat Haroun. "They must follow the rules if they want to adopt children. This is a new system of child trafficking."
In the past couple days, residents have demonstrated outside the compound where Zoe's Ark is located, denouncing the group.
"I'm very sad because this is an inhumane action," says Jafar Abakar Mohammed, a merchant from the Adre region of eastern Chad where the majority of the children are from. "I can't imagine that people would come from a rich country and do something like that here. When people see white people come to help us and do bad things like this," he adds, "it means the white man is dangerous."
• Matthew Clark contributed from Boston. Siddick Adam Issa contributed from Abéché, Chad. Material from the Associated Press was used as well.
1 | Page 2
RSS feed
