Bewildered infants await fate in Chad orphanage

By Stephanie Hancock

ABECHE, Chad (Reuters) - Toys were scattered on the floor and dozens of drawings stuck to the walls of a compound where Chadian officials say nine French citizens kept dozens of children they intended to smuggle to Europe.

Many of the infants, aged three to eight and mainly from Sudan's Darfur region, were bewildered by the sudden rush of attention when journalists were taken to the dusty courtyard of an orphanage in Abeche on Saturday.

Some began crying, others lay sleeping in the arms of those caring for them since police arrested the nine they accuse of trying to take 103 children out of the central African country.

Chad grabbed the members of French charity Zoe's Ark on Thursday as they were preparing to fly the children out of the eastern Chadian city on a charter plane.

The seven members of the charter plane's crew, all Spanish citizens, are also being held by police.

"Chad is an organized country. Do you think someone can kidnap 103 children, put them on a plane, take off and leave, without the police intervening?" Justice Minister Padimi Padacke Albert told journalists.

The 16 Westerners were disheveled and appeared not to have been allowed to wash or change their clothes since their arrests. Journalists were forbidden from interviewing the group.

The charity workers were wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Children Rescue" while the Spanish crew were still in their flight uniforms. Some had torn clothing and one French man lay on a makeshift bed, apparently suffering from back pain.