France 'must pay' for Chad kids
2008-04-03 08:26
N'Djamena - A Chadian lawyer charged on Wednesday that France had failed to keep its word to pay millions of euros that six French charity workers were ordered to compensate families whose children they tried to fly out of the country.
"France has gone back on its word after obtaining everything it wanted," said Laminal Ndintamadji, attorney for the families of 103 children in the African republic of Chad.
She referred to the $9.84m a court in Chad earlier ordered the six members of the French Zoe's Ark charity to pay.
The six were released on Monday from French jails after being pardoned by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno. They had been serving out the French equivalent of eight-year sentences handed down for trying to kidnap the children.
France 'will not pay damages'
The charity workers had consistently claimed their innocence and insist they were misled into believing the children were orphans from Sudan's Darfur region. International aid staff, however, later found almost all the children were Chadian and had at least one living relative.
Ndintamadji said: "France is a country where rule of law applies and must therefore shoulder its responsibilities and pay the parents damages and interest in accordance with a ruling of the criminal court of N'Djamena."
"France requested and obtained the transfer of its nationals after they were convicted under a judicial convention linking the two countries," she said.
She suggested that meant France had agreed to shoulder all the civil responsibilities in the case. On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said France would not pay the damages and interest.
"It is out of the question that French taxpayers should pay six million euros for mistakes that France did not make," he said.
Four aid workers face charges
However, France might yet be forced to foot the bill for damages, a report said on Wednesday. The French newspaper Le Figaro reported Paris had agreed to guarantee the payment.
According to the paper, Chadian Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke wrote to his French counterpart Rachida Dati on Tuesday, stipulating that "competence for the execution of the Chadian court decision has been transferred to France, which alone guarantees effective payment of the damages".
Le Figaro published an earlier letter sent by Padacke on December 28, two days after the workers were convicted to eight years' hard labour, setting out the conditions for them to be repatriated to serve their sentences as prison terms in France.
Given that the transfer "does not cancel the payment of the damages, it is understood that the state making the request (France) guarantees effective payment of the civil damages", he wrote.
Four of the aid workers still faced charges in France relating to the case. The Chadian pardon came after France helped Deby fight off a rebel assault in February.