-Jane Hayashi-
Two Things
25 minutes ago
Friday, February 5, 2010
Haitian Kidnappings
Last week, 10 American Missionaries attempted to smuggle 33 Haitian children out of the country without the consent of the Haiti government. These 10 Americans claimed that they were trying to help these children by bringing them to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. But, they do acknowledge the fact that they failed to attain the necessary documents and approval for the right to move these children. As a result, the 10 missionaries have been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracies. If convicted, these missionaries face up to 15 years in Haitian prison for the child abduction charges, and up to 9 years for the conspiracy charges. Luckily for these Americans, the prosecutor decided not to charge them with the most serious of charges, that of trafficking. The judge, under Haitian law, has up to 3 months to decide whether or not to pursue this issue any further, in which case, the missionaries will probably have to stay in Haitian prison, since bail is not very common in Haiti. Some of the children who were being transported to the Dominican Republic, still had living parents, whom claim that the missionaries told them that they would only be taking the children to educate them, and that they would be allowed to visit. This whole thing seems a little sketchy to me. How do you all feel? Was this an act done in malice or for personal gain, or were these missionaries actually trying to help these tragedy stricken children? Personally, I believe that they were trying to help these children. It is such a mess in Haiti,and is full of chaos. Moving these children, where they could have access to food, water, and shelter is a help.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree with you Jane, I feel like this story just doesn't totally add up. I can't see why these people would want to take the children back for negative reasons, but at the same time it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why they would want to do it at all. What would make them want to "save" those 33 children of all the children suffering throughout the nation? I guess we can only hope that they had good intensions and will soon be released to return home.
This does seem really suspicious. If the American missionaries really wanted to help the Haitian children then they should have filled out those documents. I'm pretty sure the missionaries knew it was illegal to take these children, but they still did it anyway.
Well at least they understood what they did was not authorized and told the truth. Many people don't even do that, so maybe the judge will a bit understanding. I'm glad they didn't protest against the Haitian government for something they did, which was illegal.
In several other articles covering this event, I've read that when the children were recovered, they were dehydrated and emotionally scarred. If this is the case, then I have a hard time believing that the missionaries were acting and thinking in the childrens' best interest.
Post a Comment