New Doubts Over Chad 'Adoptions'
Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
By BRUCE CRUMLEY
French authorities have repeatedly called on officials in Chad to respect presumptions of innocence in their case against six French humanitarian workers charged with trying to abduct 103 children — an operation Chadian investigators suspect may have been part of a clandestine adoption-for-pay scheme back in France. But each day brings additional allegations challenging the nature of the mission NGO Zoe's Ark claimed it was conducting in Chad.
The most damning revelation to arise in the drama came on Thursday, when results of an on-going inquiry by two United Nations organizations refuted the claim by Zoe's Ark officials that the 103 children were seriously ill or frail orphans from war-torn Darfur who were being rushed to France for urgent care. Instead, the U.N. investigation found at least 91 of the children had at least one parent still alive. Confirming the status of the remaining 12 is taking longer, due to their young age and difficulties communicating.
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