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showing that the children were orphans.
A Paris-based organisation, L’Arche de Zoé (Zoé’s Ark), had announced in a 28 April press release that it wanted to
evacuate 10,000 orphans from Darfur, where armed conflict pitting government forces and allied militia against rebel
groups has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced 2.2 million since 2003.
“We must act to save these children. Now! In a few months, they will be dead,” the organisation said in the statement.
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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.
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"We did all there was to do to stop this taking place..."
Rama Yade
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The Chadian Minister of the Interior and Public Safety, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, told media the children were not all
orphans. This is because Medias are reporting that the members of L'Arche de Zoé had documents showing that the
children were orphans.
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."
Some of the children are believed to be Chadians, but UNHCR and other bodies have yet to complete verification of
their origins.
The French junior minister for human rights Rama Yade told a press conference.
"We did all there was to do to stop this taking place. If it did go head it was in the most clandestine way
imaginable,"
She accused the charity of "obvious dissimulation", saying it had changed its name to Children Rescue once in Chad.
UNICEF said after interviewing the children -- 88 boys and 22 girls, all in good health -- that most appear to be
Chadian, not Darfuri, and that there was no evidence they were orphans.
The charity says it was given statements from local tribal leaders that all the children were Darfur orphans with no
known relatives.
KHARTOUM:
The French charity Zoe's Ark that tried to fly more than 100 children allegedly from Darfur out of Chad is unknown in
Sudan and not registered here, a United Nations official said Friday.
"The charity is not known here and has never been registered," the head of the UN office for coordination of
humanitarian affairs in Sudan, Antoine Gerard, said.
He said he had been alerted "several months ago" by the French embassy in Khartoum about the possibility of such an
operation being attempted.
A French diplomatic source in the Sudanese capital said the Zoe's Ark project was first heard of in the spring, and
that international organizations and non government organizations were put on their guard.
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