Haitian authorities have questioned a group of 10 American missionaries who are accused of illegally trying to take children out of the quake-shattered Caribbean country.
A prosecutor yesterday met the Americans at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they have been held since they were arrested late on Friday trying to cross into the Dominican Republic with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the January 12th earthquake.
The Baptist missionaries deny Haitian charges they were engaged in child trafficking and insist they were only trying to help vulnerable orphans left destitute by the quake.
Haitian authorities have expressed fears the chaos and loss caused by the earthquake that killed up to 200,000 people could allow child traffickers to prey on vulnerable children.
Government officials said the detained Americans had no documents proving the children were orphans or giving them permission to take them out of the country.
"We have information about people trying to steal kids to take them out of the country, which is the reason why the government has decided to reinforce security," Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Lassegue said of the arrests.
Mr Lassegue said it was possible the five men and five women could be sent home for trial because of the damage inflicted on the Haitian judicial system by the quake.
"We tell all Americans all over the world 24 hours a day that you are subject to the laws of the country where you find yourself," the US consul general in Haiti, Donald Moore, told reporters. Mr Moore said the missionaries were "being processed according to the Haitian penal system."
The case could be diplomatically sensitive at a time when the United States is spearheading a huge relief effort to help hundreds of thousands of Haitian quake victims, and as US aid groups pour millions of dollars of donations into Haiti.
The US military yesterday resumed medical evacuation flights of critically injured earthquake victims to the United States, ending a five-day suspension caused by a dispute over where to treat patients and who would pay for their care.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and two other US ships were leaving Haiti after completing their relief missions. Several other US warships remained offshore to support the operation.
Yesterday, UN officials said former US president Bill Clinton, the world body's special envoy to Haiti, would be named international coordinator for Haitian relief efforts.
Edmond Mulet, acting head of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, said it could take Haiti decades to recover, but that the tragedy provided an opportunity for Haitians to rebuild their country "the right way."
Mr Mulet said the world community "should do better" at assisting Haiti's long-term development and that job creation and development programs were needed to fight endemic poverty. But it was also a chance for Haitians to think about their own responsibilities and "refound their republic," he said.
Reuters