{"id":263671,"date":"2010-02-02T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-7151604133006130479"},"modified":"2010-02-02T00:40:23","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T05:40:23","slug":"haiti-could-send-us-child-traffickers-home-for-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/263671","title":{"rendered":"Haiti Could Send US ‘Child-Traffickers’ Home For Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Haitian building damaged during the quake that struck the country on January 12, 2010. It has been estimated that thousands have been killed and injured.<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

February 2, 2010<\/p>\n

Haiti could send US ‘child-traffickers’ home for trial<\/p>\n

Will Pavia in Port-au-Prince and James Bone in New York<\/p>\n

(Ben Gurr\/The Times)<\/p>\n

The American missionaries arrested and branded as \u201ckidnappers\u201d in Haiti originally planned to pick up orphans from the streets of the quake-ravage capital, according to a planning document.<\/p>\n

The ten Americans stand accused of illegally transporting children out of Haiti after attempting to cross the border into the Dominican Republic in a bus loaded with 33 children, apparently without the required government authorisation.<\/p>\n

The five men and five women remained in gloomy cells at the back of the police headquarters in Port-au-Prince yesterday, awaiting the decision of a judge.<\/p>\n

Marie Laurence, the Haitian Minister for Culture and Communications, raised the possibility that they may face trial in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether they will have to follow the process here in Haiti or to follow the process in the United States, it is for the judge to decide… based on the law in Haiti,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt appears that some of these children have mothers and fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Bellerive, Haiti\u2019s Prime Minister, confirmed that not all the children were orphans. \u201cIt is clear now that some of the children have live parents,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it is clear now that they knew what they were doing was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Idaho-based New Life Children\u2019s Refuge had been planning to build an orphanage in neighbouring Dominican Republic, but swung into action when the earthquake hit Haiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of Haitian orphans is estimated to have increased 300 per cent as a result of the catastrophic earthquake… Thousands of children have lost their parents, are are injured, hungry, thirsty and alone with limited chance of survival without help,\u201d said a planning document posted on a church web-site.<\/p>\n

The group launched a two-week \u201crescue mission\u201d to save Haitian orphans \u201cabandoned on the streets, makeshift hospitals or from collapsed orphanages\u201d in Port-au-Prince and take them to a refuge set up in a rented 45-room hotel in the Dominican resort of Cabarete.<\/p>\n

The document said the team would arrive in the Dominican Republic on January 22 and drive a bus into Port-au-Prince the following day.<\/p>\n

The goal was to \u201cgather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the DR\u201d. The New Life Children Refuge was incorporated as a charity in November by two women \u2014 Laura Silsby, 40, who runs a personal shopper website, and her family\u2019s nanny Charisa Coulter, 24 \u2014 who are members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.<\/p>\n

The charity is dedicated to \u201crescuing, loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children, demonstrating God\u2019s love and helping each child find healing, hope, joy and new life in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five of the 10 arrested are members of the 500-strong congregation at Central Valley Baptist Church and at least three are members of the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, also part of the Southern Baptist Convention, America\u2019s largest Protestant denomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here literally to just help the children. Our intentions were good,\u201d Ms Silsby said from detention. \u201cWe wanted to help those who lost parents in the quake or were abandoned.\u201d The group was in the process of buying land to build a 200-child orphanage, school and church in Magante on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

After the earthquake, the missionaries decided they could not wait. \u201cGiven the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now vs. waiting until the permanent facility is built,\u201d the planning document said.<\/p>\n

The rented 45-room hotel was intended to provide a shelter for up to 150 children, from infants to 12-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Missionaries budgeted $620 each for air-fares – $220 from Boise, Idaho to Las Vegas, and $400 from Las Vegas to the Dominican Republic – and appealed for donations to help play the estimated $1,800 to charter a bus in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

The mission also asked for tax-deductible donations of medical supplies, nappies, children\u2019s clothing, toys, 90 twin-sized beds and other supplies.<\/p>\n

“We will strive to also equip each child with a solid education and vocational skills as well as opportunities for adoption into a loving Christian family,\u201d the planning document said.<\/p>\n

The group eventually took the children from the custody of Haitian pastor Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries. It insists it paid no money for them.<\/p>\n

Drew Ham, the assistant pastor at Central Valley Baptist Church, said the 25-year-old church had conducted missions in Haiti before but none setting up an orphanage.
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haitian building damaged during the quake that struck the country on January 12, 2010. It has been estimated that thousands have been killed and injured.Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos February 2, 2010 Haiti could send US ‘child-traffickers’ home for trial Will Pavia in Port-au-Prince and James Bone in New York (Ben Gurr\/The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}