Chad accuses French charity of child trafficking (Sarkosy link)

[donsu]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2200966,00.html


· 16 EU nationals held over planned airlift of 'orphans'
· Jet charter company says it had permit for flight



Seven Spanish crew members of a plane hired to spirit 103 children out of Chad are being held by police, along with nine French citizens detained last week, it was confirmed yesterday, as international condemnation grew over a French charity's bizarre attempt at humanitarianism.
The crew were seized along with six members of the charity Zoe's Ark and three French journalists. The charity claimed its operation "Children Rescue" sought to save the lives of Darfur orphans, aged between one and 10, by housing them with families in France who had each paid more than €2,000.


But Chad's president, Idriss Deby Itno, who visited the children in the eastern city of Abeche on Friday, described the mission as "child trafficking" and promised severe punishment. France has signalled that it will not intervene to help its detained nationals. Its ambassador to Chad, Bruno Foucher, yesterday described the plan as "a completely illegal operation", adding: "The members of the association who took part in this whole illegal manipulation will answer for their acts in Chad."

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Girjet, the Barcelona-based charter airline hired to fly the children to France, said yesterday that the plane's captain, first officer and five flight attendants, four of them women, were in police custody. The company denied any knowledge of a plan to host the children with French families, who waited at an airport near Rheims on Thursday night before learning that the flight was aborted.

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The case has caused a storm in France, where the authorities have known about the proposed airlift for months. Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, called Mr Deby on Saturday to express "solidarity with the children". Even the Elysée palace has been drawn into the affair, describing as "totally false" claims that Zoe's Ark had the backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy's estranged wife Cécilia.
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