Word: chadian
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French authorities have repeatedly called on officials in Chad to respect presumptions of innocence in their case against six French humanitarian workers charged with trying to abduct 103 children - an operation Chadian investigators suspect may have been part of a clandestine adoption-for-pay scheme back in France. But each day brings additional allegations challenging the nature of the mission NGO Zoe's Ark claimed it was conducting in Chad...
...Just as troubling, the same U.N. officials said most of the children hailed not from Darfur, but rather villages near to the eastern Chadian city of Abéché, where police arrested the Zoe's Ark workers on Oct. 25 as they sought to spirit the kids away on a chartered plane. Zoe's Ark officials had not obtained authorization from Chadian officials to expatriate the children, saying their condition required immediate action that time-consuming administrative procedure would have stalled. Members of Chad's government, however, have said many of the children that were being hustled aboard...
...placement of those 103 children with French families were permanent transactions? First off, all of the 103 families paid between $2,800 and $8,400 as part of the process of volunteering - that is, money to the NGO above whatever amount caring for the children will cost. Meanwhile, Chadian authorities say the Darfur children - taken from refugee centers administered by the NGO - showed no signs of hunger or illness that would make their departure urgent. Finally, with neither the nationality nor even exact identity of most children fully established, officials in Chad and France wonder how Zoe's Ark leaders...
...official French criticism of Zoe's Ark - and Yade's expression of "solidarity" with Déby and Chadian justice officials pursuing the case has alarmed some French human rights activists over a perceived presumption of guilt in the affair. They also decry Chad's decision to try the three journalists and seven flight crew members for complicity, since they were not actively involved in selecting children for expatriation, nor hustling them aboard the plane. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday responded by asking Déby to free the French journalists rapidly...
...Some see politics playing more of a role in the case than Sarkozy's intervention on the reporters' behalf. Zoe's Ark's French lawyer has pointed out Chadian officials remain angered by a French-inspired plan to deploy European peacekeeping troops to eastern Chad to protect Darfur refugees - an attitude he says may motivate what he considers a framing of the Zoe's Ark workers. Déby has denied that allegation, and promised the deployment will be carried out as planned. Despite that, international aid efforts in the region have been undermined by the caper - while...