Chad Charges French Nationals With Kidnapping

Oct 30, 03:59 AM

Current Headlines: (Crossfiling)

Text of report by Radio France Internationale on 30 October

[Presenter] The Europeans implicated in the Zoe's Ark affair, the failed attempt to fly out 103 children from Chad, were charged late yesterday evening, at around 1 a.m. Paris time [2400 gmt] in Abeche. Yves Rocle reports.

[Rocle] After spending 12 hours at the Abeche law courts, the nine French nationals were formally charged yesterday with kidnapping of minors with the aim of compromising their civil status and swindling.

The investigating magistrate listened to the prosecution's requisitions and charged the members of the charity Zoe's Ark and the journalists who were accompanying them, without separating the charges. The judge also charged with complicity the seven Spanish members of the flight crew who were set to fly the children out of the country last Tuesday [23 October] .

It is worth noting that according to the Chadian penal code, the nine French nationals charged with kidnapping face a possible sentence of forced labour.

Finally, some Chadian nationals are also implicated in the affair. Atleast two Chadians were taken in for questioning and yesterday the Abeche prosecutor called for them to be charged with complicity. At the moment, we still do not know whether the investigating magistrate has upheld the request.

[Presenter] The Belgian pilot who flew some of the children from the Chad-Sudan border to Abeche is still in police custody, waiting to charged.

Meanwhile in France, the state secretary in charge of human rights, Rama Yade, yesterday received representatives of some 15 humanitarian organizations based in Chad. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the situation on the ground and what impact the Zoe's Ark affair will have on their work. There were reactions from the NGOs: The sad affair should not hide the reality of what is happening in Chad and Darfur, Michel Roi of the NGO Catholic Rescue.

[RFI at 0530gmt reported that a lawyer for Zoe's Ark, Gilbert Collard accused N'djamena of exploiting the case as a bargaining chip during talks on the deployment of European Union peacekeepers to Chad to protect refugees from neighboring Darfur. On the other hand, French opposition leader Francois Hollande also warned the government not to allow the Chad to use the affair for political ends.

However, the Chadian communication minister, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, denied the accusations saying "the lawyer's statement and that of Mr Hollande is meant to make it seem like the president is exploiting the situation of the children who were going to be kidnapped and taken to France, without their parents' consent, the government's consent or anybody's knowledge. I do not think the situation is being exploited. This is a situation we have denounced and it has no relation to the general political situation in the east of the country. According to our information, Chad was the first to request an intervention from the international community. And now that the international community has responded to this need, Chad hails all initiatives being taken at the international level to help resolve both the Darfur problem and helping the Sudanese refugees in Chad and Chadian internally displaced. We have always hailed this cooperation and therefore I do not think that today we should be talking of exploitation. Chad has no interest in exploiting this tragic situation to obtain anything from France".]

Originally published by Radio France Internationale, Paris, in French 0430 , 0530 30 Oct 07.

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