Chad 7: 'Justice will be done'
2007-11-07 08:24
Ndjamena - Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno said on Tuesday it was out of the question for the French charity workers accused of kidnapping more than 100 children to be extradited to France for trial, at least for now.
He said: "It is out of the question for the Chadian judiciary to abandon the case. On the contrary, the Chadian judiciary will get to the bottom" of the affair.
Public opinion is very sensitive to this issue, and I believe it is Chadian laws that will apply in this situation," he said, apparently at odds with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Deby said: "Justice will be done here in Chad."
Sarkozy vowed on Tuesday to return to Chad to bring home the charity workers facing trial, drawing a blunt response from Chad's justice minister who said the decision was not for the French leader to make.
Head of state 'should take responsibility'
According to Sarkozy: "I will go and bring back those who stayed behind, regardless of what they have done. The role of the head of state is to take responsibility for all of the French people."
Chad's Justice Minister Albert Pahimi responded: "It's not President Sarkozy who will decide" and called his statement "unfortunate in the current context".
Pahimi said: "This statement seems to sideline the justice system. That may be possible in France, but unfortunately not in Chad. It is the judges who decide here and President Nicolas Sarkozy will not decide on behalf of the Chadian justice system."
Six members of the French charity Zoe's Ark were on trial here on charges of attempting to kidnap 103 children and airlift them to France on October 25. Three Spanish crew members and one Belgian pilot were accused of complicity.
Sarkozy visits Chad
The French charity said it was saving orphans from war in Sudan's Darfur region, but the United Nations and local aid workers had since said the children might not be orphans and many were from Chad.
Local aid workers who spoke on Monday in the eastern town of Abeche, where the children were being kept in an orphanage pending identification of their families, named villages close to the border with Sudan as the home of many of the children.
Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi said that while most of the children were Chadians, there were reportedly some Sudanese among them.
The minister said: "Indications are that the overwhelming majority, if not all, are Chadians. But there could be some Sudanese among them, according to what is being said."
Sarkozy visited Chad on Sunday and flew back to Paris with three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants who had been detained in the affair after a judge ordered their release.
Asked if he had agreed with Sarkozy that the French workers would be tried here, Deby said: "It is not a matter of agreeing or not agreeing. It is simply a matter of respecting the sovereignty and judiciary of a state."