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The arrest of 10 Americans for
trying to take children out of Haiti has raised an uncomfortable
question in this brutally poor and earthquake-devastated country:
could some children be better off abroad under the grim
circumstances?

      The Baptists from Idaho were waiting Monday to hear if they will
be tried on child trafficking charges for attempting to take 33
Haitian children to the Dominican Republic without official
authorization.

      Child welfare groups expressed outrage over Friday's attempt,
saying some of the children had parents who survived the Jan. 12
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 Sunday. "My only fear is that they would forget
me, but that wouldn't affect my decision."

      The Baptists' "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was described as
an effort to save abandoned, traumatized children. Their plan was
to scoop up 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 2 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, told The Associated
Press that a commission would meet Monday to determine if the group
would go before a judge. The group was being held at a building
where government ministers are giving regular briefings - a maze of
dingy concrete rooms but not traditional cells. Their living
conditions were unclear.

      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.


      "Some parents I know have already given their children to
foreigners," said Adonis Helman, 44. "I've been thinking how I
will choose which one I may give."

      Haiti's overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless
they were in motion before the earthquake amid fears that
parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being
seized and sold. Sex trafficking has been rampant in Haiti.

      Without proper documents and concerted efforts to track down
their parents, children could be forever separated from family
members able and willing to care for them. Bellerive's personal
authorization is now required for the departure of any child.

      "For UNICEF, what is important is that for children separated
from their parents, we do everything possible to have their
families traced and to reunite them," said Kent Page, a spokesman
for the group in Haiti. "They have to be protected from
traffickers or people who wish to exploit these children."

      He said it was possible the Americans arrested may have had
"good intentions but misguided execution."

      The Idaho church group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, told the AP
from detention that the group was "just trying to do the right
thing" amid the chaos. She conceded she had not obtained the
proper Haitian documents for the children.

      The children were taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based
SOS Children's Villages, where spokesman George Willeit said they
arrived "very hungry, very thirsty." A 2- to 3-month-old baby was
dehydrated and had to be hospitalized, he said. Workers were
searching for their families or close relatives.

      "One (8-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an
orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on
a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that,"
Willeit said.

      As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is in a
difficult spot - it needs aid, but deeply resents foreign meddling.
Many have mixed feelings toward Christian groups that funnel
hundreds of millions into missions in Haiti.


      Christian missionaries alone run or support an estimated 2,000
primary schools attended by some 600,000 students - a third of
Haiti's school-aged population, according to government figures.
Church groups also run vital hospitals, orphanages and
food-distribution sites.


      "There are many who come here with religious ideas that belong
more in the time of the inquisition," said Max Beauvoir, head of
Haiti's Voodoo Priest's Association, which represents thousands of
priests and priestesses. "These types of people believe they need
to save our souls and our bodies from ourselves. We need
compassion, not proselytizing now, and we need aid - not just aid
going to people of the Christian faith."

      Two-thirds of Haiti's 9 million are said to practice Voodoo, a
melange of beliefs combining animism from west Africa and
Catholicism.

      Many religious groups run legitimate adoption agencies and
orphanages in Haiti.

      The arrested Americans include members of the Central Valley
Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the East Side Baptist Church
in Twin Falls, Idaho. They are part of the Southern Baptist
Convention, which is America's largest Protestant denomination and
has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide.

      The Idaho churches had elaborate plans before the earthquake to
shelter up to 200 Haitian and Dominican boys and girls in the
Magante beach resort, complete with a school and chapel as well as
villas and a seaside cafe catering to adoptive U.S. parents.

Gallery

Mpls woman loses relatives in quake, then daughter in car crash

Searchers in Haiti  recover body of Duluth pastors' son

Voices of Haiti relief: Minnesotans pitching in to help

Medicine running out at Haiti hospitals, clinics

Disasters

The arrest of 10 Americans for
trying to take children out of Haiti has raised an uncomfortable
question in this brutally poor and earthquake-devastated country:
could some children be better off abroad under the grim
circumstances?


Child rescue bid raises tough questions in Haiti

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