France orders probe in Chad kidnap case

November 3, 2007 (N‘DJAMENA, Chad) — The French prime minister on Saturday ordered an investigation into a French charity accused of kidnapping 103 African children from Chad. Seven suspects in the case appeared at a pretrial hearing in Chad‘s capital.

Seven Europeans appeared at the hearing in the capital, where a Chadian military transport plane had taken them Friday, along with the other 10 accused.

The charity calling itself Zoe‘s Ark was stopped last week from flying children from eastern Chad to Europe, where the group said it intended to place them with host families. The group says its intentions were purely humanitarian and that it had conducted investigations over several weeks to determine the children were orphans.

Aid workers who interviewed the children Zoe‘s Ark had tried to fly out said Thursday most of them had been living with adults whom they considered to be their parents, and came from villages on the Chadian-Sudanese border.

The suspects have been held since last week by Chadian authorities and they include six French citizens, who were charged with kidnapping.

Late Thursday, President Idriss Deby said on state television that he hoped journalists and the flight crew would be freed soon.

French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade met Friday with relatives of the journalists held in Chad, and she was also expected to meet with relatives of Zoe‘s Ark members.

In its Friday edition, the French newspaper Le Parisien reproduced part of a document it said the head of Zoe‘s Ark, Eric Breteau, submitted to Chadian authorities. The document said the group planned to open a children‘s center in eastern Chad that was to include a medical center and lodging, but, according to the newspaper, it said nothing of sending any children to France.

The lawyer also insisted his clients were “dreamers” — “not hoodlums.” He said the charges against them did “not hold up” and that his clients “did not commit any crime.”

(AP)