Port-au-Prince: Haitian officials say they are talking with US diplomats about whether 10 American Baptists arrested trying to take children out of the country should be sent to the United States for prosecution.
A lawyer representing the Americans says the nine are being treated poorly and one of them, a diabetic, fainted and has been hospitalised.
Haiti's communications minister says the Americans might have to face justice in the United States because Haiti's court system has been crippled by the January 12 earthquake.
The Baptists from Idaho were waiting yesterday to hear if they will be tried on child trafficking charges for attempting to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic without official authorisation.
Child welfare groups expressed outrage over Friday's attempt, saying some of the children had parents who survived the earthquake.
Prime Minister Max Bellerive denounced the group's "illegal trafficking of children" in a country long afflicted by the scourge and by foreign meddling. But the reality is that some struggling Haitian parents see adoption as a last-ditch hope for their children.
"My parents died in the earthquake. My husband has gone. Giving up one of my kids would at least give them a chance," Saintanne Petit-Frere, 40, a mother of six living outside in a tent camp near the airport said on Sunday. "My only fear is that they would forget me, but that wouldn't affect my decision."
Plan
The Baptists' "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was described as an effort to save abandoned, traumatised children. Their plan was to rescue 100 kids and take them by bus to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic. The 33 kids ranged in age from two months to 12 years.
They were stopped at the border for not having proper paperwork and taken back to Port-au-Prince, where the children were taken to a temporary children's home. Haiti's Justice Secretary, Amarick Louis, earlier told AP that a commission would meet to determine if the group would go before a judge.
Foreigners adopting children from the developing world have grabbed headlines recently Madonna tried to adopt a girl from Malawi amid criticism from locals, while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a burgeoning multicultural brood. But in Haiti, a long tradition of foreign military intervention coupled with the earthquake that destroyed much of the capital and plunged it even deeper into poverty, have made this issue even more emotionally charged.
- 10 Americans being held by authorities
- 33 children in Americans' custody
- 100 targeted number of children to be ‘rescued'
- 2 month-old baby is the youngest in custody
