France/Chad

Paris resists call to pay Zoe's Ark damages

Article published on the 2008-10-18 Latest update 2008-10-18 10:08 TU

Parents of children collected by members of l'Arche de Zoé at the December trial
(Photo: AFP)

France's government has rejected a call by Chad to pay the 6.3 million euros in damages due from members of the Arche de Zoé (Zoe's Ark) group, who were repatriated after being found guilty of kidnapping by a court in N'Djamena last December. Chadian President Idris Deby Itno pardoned the six French nationals but his government says that the damages still have to be paid.

The case "does not concern governents", argued Guillaume Didier, spokesperson for Justice Minister Rachida Dati, in response to the Chadian call to hand over the cash and then collect it off the individuals who were ordered to pay it.

In April Prime Minister François Fillon declared that it was "out of the question" that the French taxpayer pay for "errors that France has not committed".

The group's lawyers say that the families of the 103 children named in court must claim the damages and that Chad's government is not a plaintiff.

N'Djamena argues that Paris took responsibility for the whole case when it negotiated the repatriation of the Zoe's Ark members.

They had been condemned to eight years hard labour, as well as the payment of compensation to the families, after being found guilty of trying to kidnap the children.

Zoe's Ark argued that it was trying to save orphans of the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur and find them homes in France, although other international humanitarian groups denied that claim.

"The Chadian govenrment has already paid a third of the damages to the families," its spokesperson Mahamet Hissène told RFI's French service. "It is asking the French government to obtain the payment of the whole sum.

"We are demanding that those who were found guilty pay but it is up to the French justice system to put that into operation," he added.

Chad's President Idris Deby Itno pardoned the six after they had returned to France, but his government says that only applied to the hard labour sentence.

Although Franco-Chadian relations were strained over the case, especially when President Nicolas Sarkozy visited N'Djamena in November to argue that the six should be tried in France, Hissène says that the case will not now be allowed to disrupt relations between the countries.