N'DJAMENA (AFP)
Six French charity workers jailed in Chad over an attempt to fly 103 children to France began a hunger strike Saturday to protest what they called a "biased" probe into the incident, a judicial source said.
"They have begun their hunger strike, but are continuing to drink water and smoke," the source told AFP.
"They are saying that they are determined to continue their strike until they are freed because they say they have committed no crime."
The six French nationals are incarcerated in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena on charges of kidnapping and fraud. Five Chadian officials and a Sudanese refugee are also detained for complicity.
In October, Chadian authorities halted a controversial operation in the eastern city of Abeche, as charity members tried to board 103 children on a France-bound plane.
Zoe's Ark has said that it thought the children were orphans from Darfur, the neighboring Sudanese region in the throes of civil war.
But international humanitarian organizations claim almost all the children are from Chadian villages in the border area, and have at least one parent or adult guardian.
Also charged initially were three French journalists, seven Spanish air crew members chartered by Zoe's Ark to take the children to France, and a Belgian pilot who transported some of the children from Adre, near the Sudanese border, to Abeche.
They have since been released and repatriated, although the charges still hold in Chad.
Those charged could incur sentences of between five to 20 years of forced labor in Chad. |
