French group tries to kidnap 100 children

A wave of anger has spread through Chad and all of Africa since a group called Zoe’s Ark, operating under the false name of “Children’s Rescue,” attempted to take 103 African children to France from Abeche, a small city in eastern Chad near its border with the Sudanese province of Darfur.

It appears likely from hints in the French press that the French military, which has several bases in Chad, was aware of what Zoe’s Ark was planning. Given that the current French government wants to demand DNA verification before it gives out visas for family unifications, it is likely that Zoe’s Ark had been given assurances on some level that it could get a large group of African children into France without visas, passports or even birth certificates.

The Chadian police arrested six staff members of Zoe’s Ark, three French journalists and seven members of the airplane crew on the tarmac Oct. 25 and charged them with attempted kidnapping and conspiracy.

They and the Belgian pilot, who had flown a light plane from village to village picking up the children, were taken to the jail in Abeche, where they were all put in the only holding cell there.

What tipped the police off was that the children, who were presented at the airport by the group with bloody bandages and a few intravenous lines, didn’t look otherwise sick or injured.

Footage shot by one of the journalists just before the children were taken to the airport was shown on French television Nov. 4. In it, staff members can be seen putting bandages on healthy kids, pouring blood on the bandages and being told by their Chadian staff that there would be “big problems if they were discovered.” They are also seen phoning a French family, who had paid them a big fee, to advise them that the children were coming.

The staff of Zoe’s Ark discussed how to present these children as orphans from Darfur. UNICEF, however, has determined that 91 of these children had at least one parent alive and in Chad.

Hundreds of women demonstrated in Abeche Oct. 30 accusing France, the former colonial power, of a role in the attempted kidnapping. One woman told French television, which covered the march, “No to the slave trade! No trafficking in children!” She added, “We want those responsible to be tried in Abeche.”

Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, visited Abeche on the day of the demonstration and told French television that he suspected the children were being taken to be turned over to a “pedophile ring” or be “used for body parts.”

Speaking to This Day, an online Sudanese journal, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Child Affairs, Dr. Saeed A. Saeed, said that Zoe’s Ark is not new in this business.

Saeed said the Sudanese government believes the organization may be into child trafficking, either to trade the children into slavery, abuse them sexually for commercial purposes, trade their body organs for medical experiment, or for some other commercial reasons.

According to him, investigations have revealed that the organization had already successfully carried out four similar operations.

Congo, which like Chad is among the five poorest countries in the world, has also suspended cooperation with all foreign groups taking children out of the country.

The French staff of Zoe’s Ark, the journalists and the Spanish airline crew were taken to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, on Nov. 2 and an investigating judge opened his inquiry. Two days later French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to N’Djamena, talked with President Deby and openly pushed for moving the trial of the Zoe’s Ark staff to France. Sarkozy secured the release of the three French journalists and four of the Spanish aircrew. His plane took off two hours after he landed.

Before it became exposed, this whole operation by Zoe’s Ark was meant to whip up humanitarian feelings in France to justify its military intervention in Darfur. France is scheduled in the next few months to lead the joint U.N./African Union “peacekeeping” force that will give European imperialism troops on the ground in the Sudan.

But the French troops and the African police they will direct need bases in eastern Chad, and having French “humanitarians” on trial for kidnapping would create major problems for France and other imperialist powers, such as the U.S. and Britain.

Since Deby’s main political support comes from eastern Chad, his home region, he can’t be seen as giving in to the French, even though they supply his government with essential military and economic aid.