American Detainees Underwent Intensed Questioning by Haitian Judge

Group of U.S. Baptist missionaries arrested trying to leave Haiti with a busload of children they gathered from the disaster zone were being questioned Tuesday by a judge.

The investigating magistrate queried the five women for several hours and will follow up with the five men on Wednesday, according to the Haiti’s communications minister. No lawyers were present, and the Americans have yet to be charged.

Ten Southern Baptist accused of unlawfully trying to remove 33 children from Haiti are still awaiting word on their fate. The ten were arrested last Friday as they tried to take the children into the Dominican Republic.

Clint Henry is pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, where five members of the group attend. He claims allegations that they are child traffickers are false. Pastor Henry says team members believed they had all paperwork in order to bring the children across the border, but were told they needed one more document and then were taken into custody. The truth, says Henry, will come out.

“We know that our team is exhausted,” says the pastor. “They have already gone through all the emotional anguish that anyone would experience if you were in Port-au-Prince and saw everything that was going on and wanted to do all that you could in knowing that that was very little — except what you could do one person at a time.

“So our team that’s there [needs] prayer just for their continuing ability to handle the stresses that they’re going through now,” he urges.

Meanwhile, an expert in human trafficking says it appears the Southern Baptists arrested in Haiti may have had good intentions, but did not heed all regulations and laws regarding adoptions.
Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue says the evidence will be presented to a Haitian district attorney to decide whether to file charges.

The Baptists from Idaho say they were only trying to help orphans survive the earthquake. But legal experts say taking children across a border without documents or government permission can be considered child trafficking.

At the SOS Children’s Village orphanage where authorities are protecting the 33 children, regional director Patricia Vargas said none who are old enough and willing to talk had said they were orphans: “Up until now we have not encountered any who say they are an orphan.”

Dr. Janice Crouse, who is with the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America, is a recognized authority on sex trafficking. She says although the situation in Haiti is dire for survivors, all laws must be investigated and strictly followed.
Vargas said most of the children are between 3 and 6 years old, and unable to provide phone numbers or any other details about their origins.

The Americans apparently enlisted a clergyman who went knocking on doors asking people if they wanted to give away their children, the director of Haiti’s social welfare agency, Jeanne Bernard Pierre, told The Associated Press.

“One child said to me, ‘When they came knocking on our door asking for children, my mom decided to give me away because we are six children and by giving me away she would have only five kids to care for,”‘ Bernard Pierre said.

About 10 parents have come forward saying their children were taken, but it wasn’t clear if any are related the case involving the Americans, Bernard Pierre said.

Prime Minister Max Bellerive has suggested the Americans could be prosecuted in the United States because Haiti’s shattered court system may not be able to cope with a trial.

“It is clear now that they were trying to cross the border without papers. It is clear now that some of the children have live parents. And it is clear now that they knew what they were doing was wrong,” Bellerive told the AP.

The White House has said the case remains in Haitian hands for now.

Central Valley Baptist Church Assistant Pastor Drew Ham in Idaho called Tuesday for their immediate release, saying questioning them without lawyers violates the Haitian Constitution.

The U.S. government could claim jurisdiction to try them in the United States, but one expert on international abductions doubts it will happen, since prosecutors are likely to take into account the mitigating circumstances.

“They have obviously made a huge mistake by unilaterally going into Haiti and taking children without the permission and knowledge of the Haitian government. It’s a crime in Haiti and anywhere in the world to take or abduct children even if the underlying intentions were humanitarian or good in nature,” said Christopher Schmidt, an attorney with Bryan Cave LLP in St. Louis.

“Whether or not a prosecutor would choose to prosecute these individuals in this case is an open question. Frankly I have doubts whether a prosecutor would want to go down that path,” he said.

The Haitian government has suggested that the case be moved to the U.S. because Haiti’s court system is in shambles and much of the government is not working. But a representative from the U.S. embassy says they have no jurisdiction. So, the 10 Americans remained jailed.