Zoe's Ark…From Tsunami to Darfur

Zoe's Ark…From Tsunami to Darfur

Six members of the charity are accused of "kidnapping" 103 kids and trying to fly them to France.

The group, founded by volunteer firefighter and four-wheel-drive enthusiast Eric Breteau, describes itself as a non-profit organization "dedicated to orphaned children."

Zoe's Ark launched in June a controversial plan to airlift 1,000 children from Sudan's troubled Darfur region and place them in foster care with French families, to "save them from certain death".

It confirmed outright singing up 500 foster families to cover evacuation costs, each paying 4,000 to 8,600 dollars.

On its website, Zoe's Ark claims that 800,000 children are at the risk of dying by the end of the year.

Six members of the charity are now accused of "kidnapping minors" and "fraud" for attempting to fly 103 children, aged 1-10, from the Chad-Darfur border to France.

UN officials say many of the children are from Chad, not Darfur as alleged by Zoe's Ark, with no evidence of being orphans.

French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade has accused the group of hiding its identity by registering in Chad under the name of Children Rescue.

She recalled that the government warned Zoe's Ark months ago that it risked breaking the law and that it had no way of proving that the children involved were orphans.

Zoe's Ark was launched after the December 2004 Asian tsunami.

The group worked for months in tsunami-hit Indonesia, setting up four temporary camps in Banda Aceh.

Accomplice

French police have been investigating the charity since July on charges of illegal adoption.

Breteau, who heads both Zoe's Ark and Children Rescue, was questioned in August about plans to adopt children from Darfur.

But the government is under mounting pressure to explain its own role in the controversial operation.

From the outset, Zoe's Ark said the operation was being carried out with the knowledge -- but not the support -- of French authorities.

It has been revealed that French military planes in Chad carried charity members on several occasions.

France has 1,000 troops and fighter jets stationed in Chad, home to some 236,000 refugees from Darfur as well as some 173,000 people displaced by a local rebellion.

Le Figaro newspaper reported that a French government official and gendarmes were due to "welcome" the flight carrying the 103 children at an airport east of Paris.

Dozens of angry Chadians assembled outside the court house in the eastern city of Abeche, calling the arrested Europeans "thieves, killers."

They also accusing former colonial power France of being an "accomplice" in the crime.

"We have got ourselves into an impossible situation and I would like to know exactly what the French authorities' role was," said former premier Laurent Fabius.

"It is obvious the French authorities know what goes on in Chad."

Le Monde has also criticized the government's handling of the controversy, particularly with regard to "decent explanations."