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Bill Clinton urges solution to Haiti 'kidnap' case
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Feb 07, 2010 09:44pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Joseph Guyler Delva |
| Media | News Service - Reuters |
| News Date | Saturday, February 6, 2010 03:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | "Clinton, named by the United Nations to coordinate relief efforts for survivors of the devastating January 12 quake, made the appeal during a visit to the shattered Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, his second since last month's disaster.
The accused U.S. missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were arrested a week ago and charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association.
Haitian authorities say the group tried to take a busload of 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic without any papers proving the minors were orphans or any official permission to take them out of the country.
The missionaries deny any intentional wrongdoing and say they were only trying to help children left destitute by the January 12 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people, injured some 300,000 and left over a million more homeless.
The Americans' case is diplomatically sensitive and aid groups complain it has distracted media and world attention away from the struggle to feed and shelter hundreds of thousands of Haitians camped out in wrecked streets.
"What's important now is for the government of Haiti and the government of the United States to get together and work through this," Clinton told CNN in Port-au-Prince.
He said he understood the Haitian government's efforts to try to protect its children from possible child traffickers and unlawful adoptions following the catastrophic quake.
But he also said the missionaries could be telling the truth when they argued they simply wanted to help the children and did not mean to violate any laws. Evidence has emerged that many of the intercepted children were not orphans but were given up by parents who wanted them to have a better life." |
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