Scum of the Earth Identified: Zoe's Ark "Charity"

A few days ago, I noted reports about how Chadian authorities arrested a whole bunch of people involved with a French charity, accusing them of taking Chadian children from their homes. Those associated with the charity claim that they were Darfurian orphans.

Chadian officals have been investigating matters further, as have a bunch of independent human rights groups, and they've found plenty of evidence showing that the kids are indeed Chadian and that they were taken from their families.

The International Red Cross Committee, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF said most of the children were living with their families before the French charity, Zoe's Ark, took them to the eastern city of Abeche, in Chad. The charity said the children were Sudanese orphans that it was trying to rescue from a war-torn nation.

The agencies said most of the children also "probably" come from Chadian villages along Chad's border with Sudan.

The children have been living in an orphanage in Abeche while authorities and aid agencies try to determine their identities.

Six members of Zoe's Ark were arrested last week as they tried to put the children on a plane to France, where the charity said host families were waiting to take the children in.

Three French journalists, a seven-member Spanish flight crew and one Belgian were also arrested.

Chadian authorities immediately accused the charity of kidnapping and of concealing the children's identities. Chad's interior minister said Zoe's Ark even dressed the children in bandages and fake intravenous drips to make them look more like refugees in need of medical help.

Scum of the earth doesn't begin to describe what this "charity" has been up to. I can only hope that they get locked up for a good long time.

This group was hoping to take advantage of a desperate situation in Darfur and the sympathies of a French public that was looking to help orphans from the Darfur genocide, and instead the group appears to have engaged in kidnapping children from their homes or other illicit behavior.

UPDATE:
Some of the reports are suggesting that two of the journalists arrested accompanying the charity were doing their job in reporting on the charity's efforts, but a third journalist was actively involved. Their disposition will come soon enough, as the French and Chadian governments are engaging in high level diplomacy over this mess.

Also victims in all this are the French families who thought that they would be helping Darfurian refugee orphans. This is also causing a diplomatic mess for the French government, which is set to take over peacekeeping responsibilities:

Would-be foster parents in France had paid several thousand dollars each to receive a child and some have expressed anger at the child trafficking charges, hurt at the outrage and hope that any trial will take place in France.

The government is in the firing line for failing to prevent the operation after it emerged the French army provided the charity members, who include a doctor and volunteer firefighters, with assistance in Chad.

Apart from the 17 Europeans, a Chadian deputy district administrator and a community chief have been arrested and charged with complicity in alleged abductions.

The case ignited tension with Paris, which is about to take the helm of a European peacekeeping force in Chad to protect hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees and Chadians displaced by rebel insurgency and ethnic strife.