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Plan To Rescue Darfur Children Ends With Arrests

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By ANGELA DOLAND, The Associated Press

Published: October 27, 2007

PARIS - The warning was dire: 'The children will be dead in a few months,' the French charity said of orphans in Darfur. It asked people to help by paying thousands of dollars to fly them out of the region's turmoil.

Dozens of French families came forward, offering money for the group and homes for the children. But the French government said the scheme was illegal.

The organizers were arrested Thursday in Africa, leaving a swirl of questions: Were they volunteers for a genuine charity or child traffickers as authorities in Chad claim? Or were they simply misguided people driven by a desire to help?

The group, L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Arc), said it is a three-year-old charity that wanted to save orphans from Sudan's Darfur region by placing them with French host families. It says it asked the families for $3,400 to help with logistics and chartering a plane, though some contributed smaller or larger amounts.

'This was about saving children, welcoming them into France, declaring them to authorities and placing them with host families so they could get on with their lives,' said Christophe Letien, a spokesman for the group in France.

The French Foreign Ministry denounced the operation, saying children simply could not be swept out of a country without following the right procedures, including strict international regulations to verify they had no living family members.

Starting months ago, 'We told Zoe's Arc that we had major reservations every time they talked to us,' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said. The ministry said it warned prosecutors about the group's operations in July, and an investigation has been opened.

Zoe's Arc recruited support on its Web site with a message reading: 'The survival of these children depends on action. Now! The children will be dead in a few months.'

The message expressed frustration with traditional channels to help Darfur, which has suffered 4 1/2 years of conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced.

'We must get out of the mind-set of sterile political speeches, humanitarian excuses and interminable diplomatic negotiations,' the site said.

The group was preparing to take 103 children on a flight from neighboring Chad when authorities there arrested nine French citizens Thursday. Ahmat Mahamt Bachir, a Chad Cabinet minister, told RTL radio they were accused of child trafficking.

Back in France, dozens of families were waiting at an airport for the children.

After the arrests, the children were taken into the care of Chadian authorities with the support of UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. refugee agency, French officials said.

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