Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans who were detained last week while trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association, a government official said.
The 10 were returned to jail in Port-au-Prince after their court hearing in the case Thursday, CNN's Karl Penhaul reported.
The Americans say they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country, but Haiti's prime minister has said that the group was kidnapping the children.
The Americans were turned back as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. They said they were going to house them in a converted hotel in that country and later move them to an orphanage they were building there.
The group appeared to be freshly showered and dressed, and in otherwise good condition as they went before three Haitian prosecutors. Court sources said they looked relaxed. They arrived at court in two vehicles -- a white SUV and a twin-cab police pickup truck. A number of boxes and backpacks that appeared to belong to the Americans were in the back of the pickup.
Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters told CNN Wednesday that they were present when group members spoke with the children's parents. Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children over to the Americans, who promised them a better life, and who said they could see their children whenever they wanted to.
Government approval is needed for any Haitian child to leave the country, and the group acknowledged that the children had no passports.
Some members of the group belong to the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, has said that U.S. officials have been given unlimited consular access to the Americans and that U.S. and Haitian authorities are "working to try to ascertain what happened [and] the motive behind these people.
"Clearly there are questions about procedure as to whether they had the appropriate paperwork to move the children," he said.
The Haitian government has accused the American missionaries of kidnapping and is investigating the incident before releasing the children back to their families.
"The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents; they wanted to return to their parents," Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN.
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
I understand that the government wants to keep some control over this matter, and I think the group acted imprudently and (probably) impulsively. However, since the parents willingly gave up their children, I'm not sure any real crime has been committed.
I'm NOT sure why these missionaries felt that the children would be better off without their parents. Even in the poorest of circumstances, unless a child is failing to thrive, or being abused in some way, they are better off with their parents.
__________________
"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissBrattified
I understand that the government wants to keep some control over this matter, and I think the group acted imprudently and (probably) impulsively. However, since the parents willingly gave up their children, I'm not sure any real crime has been committed.
I'm NOT sure why these missionaries felt that the children would be better off without their parents. Even in the poorest of circumstances, unless a child is failing to thrive, or being abused in some way, they are better off with their parents.
Yep... there are so many possible wrong directions this could be coming from I am in wait and see mode on this one.
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
This is probably a case where their ignorance is going to cost them some $. The amount to be determined. They said they did not have proper documentation. Dom Rep was right to turn them back. This coud be a hairy situation.
Haiti is such a crooked country that a few dollars spent to the proper authorities will convince them that they meant no big harm.
I bet they will remember this mission trip for a long time, maybe they are aready writing their movie scripts for a new christian movie.
Maybe they can title it.....
"Escape from Haiti"... or, "When the earth shook and the authorities would not let us have 30+ kids"
What did they think was going to happen when someone is trying to take 30+ kids out of a country without the proper papers? The accusations are already flying from Chaves that America is trying to take the country over.... then American are trying to take kids out without papers. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
When we went there, they had checkpoints every few miles. Every cop with their hand out!
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
Really the thread title ought to be:
Unintelligent Religious folks make bad move in trying to taking kids, without papers, out of Haiti!
Were they even recognized from their org or was this just a mustang solo trip of a church out of Idaho?
Surely these folks had to have been solo! No Recognized Organizational Mission board would pull this stunt! When I first saw this I just shook my head! These folks thought that just cause they were Americans, down in a country that had just had a major catastrophe, that they could do whatever!
Ha! They were probably singing "God is my co-pilot" until they got shot down at the border crossing! C'mon folks, there was not a single intelligent thing they did here. They need some legal counsel to help them!
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
The (fictional) missionary trip into Burma ended pretty badly, too, in Rambo (2008). (Saw it for the first time last night. Very interesting, and intense, movie!)
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Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
Quote:
Originally Posted by TJJJ
Really the thread title ought to be:
Unintelligent Religious folks make bad move in trying to taking kids, without papers, out of Haiti!
Were they even recognized from their org or was this just a mustang solo trip of a church out of Idaho?
Surely these folks had to have been solo! No Recognized Organizational Mission board would pull this stunt! When I first saw this I just shook my head! These folks thought that just cause they were Americans, down in a country that had just had a major catastrophe, that they could do whatever!
Ha! They were probably singing "God is my co-pilot" until they got shot down at the border crossing! C'mon folks, there was not a single intelligent thing they did here. They need some legal counsel to help them!
I can see this as being interpreted internationally as a case for American arrogance.
I am glad that Haiti is holding a hard line on this.
You just can't go into someone's country, take their children, leave that country and think everything is going to just work out.
__________________
"The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character."
Seems 9 of the 10 they feel were duped! Man oh man, I bet next time they will do some checking out of the facts. This is such a stupid move from those people.
Emotionalism will get us in trouble when left unchecked. They went down there, saw those kids and said "hey, let's help sis so and so get them across the border to Dom Repub"! What are they, coyotes? Human traffickers get the hammer thrown down on them. Man, especially with kids!
Re: US Missionaries Charged With Kidnapping In Hai
Quote:
Originally Posted by TJJJ
Jermyn, you and I are on the the same page here.
These people made a big mistake.
These people were running solo, no official representation, trying to smuggle children from one country to the other, bad new my friend!
It's an awesome opportunity for the Sec'y of State to exercise her diplomatic skills.
I don't know, the President himself may have to step in, if Haiti holds the line like I would if some Brits had tried to take some children from New Orleans right after "Katrina" and "Rita".
Honestly, I don't expect these folks to be "sentenced" or anything, but I really hope that they learn a lesson and that Haiti stands up for her sovereignty-- even in their point of desperate need.
The more I think about this, I see their actions as so disrespectful-- even if some of the parents of the children were consenting.
__________________
"The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character."
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