Taking Advantage

You have got to be kidding me.

A French based charity had a whole bunch of its members arrested in Chad - including three journalists - for kidnapping more than 100 kids who they claim were orphans from the Darfur genocide/ethnic cleansing, but which Chad thinks may have been Chadian. Those journalists were not simply bystanders either - they were deeply involved in the whole thing.

Authorities in Chad have charged nine French nationals with kidnapping after they attempted to fly out of Chad with more than 100 children the group claimed were orphans from Sudan.

Members of the French aid group L'Arche de Zoe were detained and handcuffed in Abeche, Chad.

The charges were confirmed by Leonard Vincent, who heads the Africa desk at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Three French journalists are among those charged.

In addition, Vincent said, seven crew members of a Spanish charter company were charged with complicity.

The 16 were being held in the eastern Chadian city of Abeche and were expected to be transferred to the capital, N'Djamena, later in the week, Vincent said.

The group was arrested last week as they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France. The "rescue mission" was organized by L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark), a Paris-based charity which said the children were orphans from the Darfur crisis and were being taken to foster families in France.

The Chadian government disputed that, and a spokeswoman for the UNHCR said that based on preliminary interviews with the children, they "most probably" are from Chad.

The arrested French nationals include six members of Zoe's Ark and three French journalists, Vincent said. Two of the journalists were on assignment for independent media outlets, while the third was on humanitarian leave from her job, he said.

"Her editor gave her a camera because she wanted to cover the operation," Vincent said, "but she was also sympathetic to the association as she wanted to host one of the kids."

Nothing quite like people trying to take advantage of a human rights crisis and getting themselves involved in a human rights mess of their own.