The Arch of Zoe

the Arch of Zoe is a French association law 1901 which gives itself for objective the assistance to the children Orphelin S and the humanitarian Aid.

History of association

Association was rested and is chaired by Eric Breteau, volunteer fireman with Argenteuil and in addition former president of the French federation of 4x4. Its general secretary is Stéphanie Dhainaut-Lefebvre.

Created in the beginning to come to assistance of the children victims of the tsunami from December 2004 to Asia, in particular in the area of Banda Aceh in Indonesia, it extends its activities to the Sudan and the Chad in 2007, through Operation Darfur , also indicated like operation.

At the time of the operations of association to the Darfur, two related associations gathering the families which wished to accommodate orphans of Darfur are created:

  • the Collective of the families for the orphans of Darfur (COFOD) in France on July 17th, 2007,
  • and Kiro and Louna - COFOD in Belgium on September 14th, 2007.

Actions in Indonesia

In 2005 and 2006, association works on the rehabilitation of the disaster areas in Indonesia, consequence of the tsunami of December 2004 in the area. The ONG sets up four refugee camps at the west of Banda Aceh. The operation aims at giving to more: 100000 children of the area the possibility to reach places of culture, intellectual enrichment and blooming in order to make them obtain a statute of request asylum via families of receptions, even allow thereafter these families of receptions to proceed to a simple Adoption or plenary of the children collected. The minimal participation in the expenses of association is of: 1490 € per family, just as the team members of the plane chartered for this purpose near a Spanish company. They are suspected by the local authorities of devoting to a Enlèvement children. The Chadian president, Idriss Déby, affirms that the children concerned are not orphan and that they could be removed to feed networks paedophiles or a network of traffic of bodies. Association evokes as for it an operation intended for to evacuate towards the Europe orphan children of Darfur , victims of the civil war which prevails in this area.

See also: Civil war in Darfur

On the whole, six people related to the Arch of Zoe, whose president of association Eric Breteau and his partner, president and vice-president of the COFOD, Philippe Van Winckelberg and Alain Peligat, as three journalists who accompanied them, seven Spanish and two Chadians, are put in detention at Abéché, one of the cities of the Chadian East.

Friday, October 26, 2007, French justice carries out a Perquisition with the seat of association, with Paris, like in the residence of its president, within the framework of legal information for illicit exercise of the activity of intermediary in adoption of minors or placement for an adoption .

This business quickly acquires a strong echo in the media. It becomes also political. October 30th, 2007, the nine French are accused of removal of minors and swindle, while the seven Spaniards are accused of complicity of removal.

According to a survey carried out jointly by UNICEF, the Office of the High Commission of the United Nations for the refugees and the International committee of the Red Cross, 85% of the children whom the Arch of Zoe transported are not orphan (75% have their two parents, 10% have one of them) and the three quarters are Chadian (ethnos groups Masalit and Zaghawa).

October 31st, 2007, Jacques Wilmart, pilot of Belgian plane having transported between the border tchado- Sudan ease and Abéché part of the 103 children, is accused and écroué.

November 3rd, 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy goes to Chad. This same day, Chadian justice releases the three French journalists and the four Spanish hostesses. They are brought back in their respective country with the French presidential plane until the military airport of Villacoublay after a common press conference Sarkozy - Déby. After a first stopover in Madrid and a short joint press conference between Nicolas Sarkozy and Jose Shine Rodríguez Zapatero, the plane gains the French territory.

November 9th, 2007, the three Spaniards and the Belgian pilot which were accused of complicity with the Arch of Zoe are given in freedom.

According to Emmanuel Ratter, this business would be actually a handling of the Chadian secret services, intended to exert pressures on the French government so that this one closes the eyes on massacres made at the border between Chad and Sudan, where France orders an intervention of UNO.

Appendices

List godfathers of association

External bonds

  • Official site of association
  • Internet site of the Collective of the families for the orphans of Darfur - France (COFOD)
  • Internet site of the COFOD - Belgium

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