Word: chadness
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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...
...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 the plan were in fine health, and had been wearing fake bandages and unconnected IV drips to give the misleading impression of injury or illness...
...sell the children to couples in France who paid as much as $8,400 to Zoe's Ark parent organization Children's Rescue to take Darfur orphans into their homes. Children's Rescue officials in France have acknowledged the Oct. 25 operation to remove the children from Chad lacked required authorization, but say the urgency of getting the children care made rule-breaking expediency necessary. Zoe's Ark's French lawyer, meanwhile, has suggested there is a political motive driving Chadian leaders who initially denounced the NGO as a "pedophile" group using humanitarian cover for "child trafficking." Chad, the lawyer...
...That surge of suspicion hasn't solely been limited to Chad. French government officials have condemned Zoe's Ark for its illegal attempt to fly the children out of Chad, and acknowledge they were sufficiently concerned about ambiguity in Children's Rescue's actual mission that they repeatedly warned its leaders from breaking any rules...
...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...