The arrest in Chad of nine French nationals on charges of kidnapping 103 purported Darfuri orphans led to serious accusations against the human rights organizations involved on Friday, according to dpa. Chadian President Idriss Deby called the action of the French NGO Rescue Children "inhuman, unacceptable (and) unthinkable." He said those arrested would be "severely punished." Six members of Rescue Children and three French journalists were jailed on Thursday on charges of kidnapping and trafficking in children after being taken into custody at the airport of Abeche, in eastern Chad, as they were preparing to leave the country with the children on a Boeing 757 aircraft. They are suspected of wanting to take the children to France to have them adopted by French families. A spokeswoman for the United Nations child care organization (UNICEF) Veronique Taveau, speaking in Geneva, said: "What has happened in Chad and the way it has been carried out is illegal and irresponsible and it has breached all international rules." The children had neither passports nor identity papers and therefore could not legally leave the country. Taveau said international conventions on protecting children were clear; even if both parents were dead, every effort had to be made to find a child's nearest relations so they might be reunited once a war was over and they could not be considered for adoption.
