[Vision2020] Meridian, Idaho Baptist U.S. Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping in Haiti

[Ted Moffett]

I would not be surprised if some or all of those charged in this case had
good intentions, but were led by their religious beliefs to make some very
questionable decisions:

http://www.ktvb.com/home/10-American-detained-in-Haiti-being-moved-8-from-Idaho-83558322.html
#

10 U.S. Baptists held in Haiti charged with kidnapping

by Frank Bajak
Associated Press writer

Posted on February 4, 2010 at 10:29 AM

Updated today at 4:17 PM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten members of a U.S. missionary group who said they
were trying to rescue 33 child victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake
were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association on Thursday,
their lawyer said.

Edwin Coq said after a court hearing that a judge found sufficient evidence
to charge the Americans, who were arrested Friday at Haiti's border with the
Dominican Republic. Coq attended Thursday's hearing and represents the
entire group in Haiti.

Group leader Laura Silsby has said they were trying to take orphans and
abandoned children to an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
She acknowledged they had not sought permission from Haitian officials, but
said they just meant to help victims of the quake.

The children taken from the group, ranging in age from 2 to 12, were being
cared for at the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince on
Wednesday.

The U.S. citizens, most of them members of an Idaho-based church group, were
whisked away from the closed court hearing to jail in Port-au-Prince, the
capital. Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer
questions.

Coq said that under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open trial, but
a judge will consider the evidence and could render a verdict in about three
months.

Coq said a Haitian prosecutor told him the Americans were charged because
they had the children in their possession. No one from the Haitian
government could be reached immediately for comment.

Each kidnapping count carries a possible sentence of five to 15 years in
prison. Each criminal association count has a potential sentence of three to
nine years.

Coq said that nine of the 10 knew nothing about the alleged scheme, or that
paperwork for the children was not in order.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out," Coq said. That would
still leave mission leader Laura Silsby facing charges.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington the U.S. was open
to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants — an apparent reference
to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider
sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.

Several parents of the children in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian village
near the capital, told The Associated Press Wednesday they had handed over
their children willingly because they were unable to feed or clothe their
children and the American missionaries promised to give them a better life.

Their accounts contradicted statements by Silsby, of Meridian, Idaho.

In a jailhouse interview Saturday, Silsby told the AP that most of the
children had been delivered to the Americans by distant relatives, while
some came from orphanages that had collapsed in the quake.

"They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and families and are
so deeply in need of, most of all, God's love and his compassion," she said.

In Callebas, parents said a local orphanage worker, fluent in English and
acting on behalf of the Baptists, had convened nearly the entire village of
500 people on a dirt soccer field to present the Americans' offer.

Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate their
children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers said, adding
that they were also assured they would be free to visit their children
there.

Many parents jumped at the offer.

Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was
looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find
them.

He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers
and onions. That very day, he had a list of 20 children.

As they loaded children onto a bus in Callebas on Jan. 28, the Americans
took down contact information for all the families and assured them a
relative would be able to visit them in the Dominican Republic.

The Americans' journey began last summer after Silsby and her former nanny,
24-year-old Charisa Coulter, resolved to establish an orphanage for Haitian
children in the Dominican Republic. Coulter is among the jailed Americans.

They began buying up used clothing and collecting donations from their
Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian and in November, Silsby registered
the New Life Children's Refuge Inc., the nonprofit organization coordinating
the rescue mission. It listed the address of her now-foreclosed home in
Meridian as its headquarters.

Then the quake hit. Silsby and Coulter moved into high gear, gathering
donations and assembling a team to go into Haiti and urgently take out
children, the younger woman's father, Mel Coulter, told the AP from his home
in Kuna, Idaho.

The group packed 40 plastic bins of donated goods into a U-Haul trailer and
drove to Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, where they took a flight to the
Dominican Republic. They made their way to Haiti, where four days later,
they were introduced to Adrien.

Adrien, who had served as the go-between and translator for the
missionaries, said he had no knowledge of the group's larger plans;
villagers said they were told none of their children would be offered for
adoption.

A Haitian-born pastor who said he worked as an unpaid consultant for the
group insisted the Baptists had done nothing wrong.

The Rev. Jean Sainvil said some of the children were orphans and might have
been put up for adoption. Children with parents were to be kept in the
Dominican Republic, and would not lose contact with their families, Sainvil
said in Atlanta.

"Everybody agreed that they knew where the children were going. The parents
were told, and we confirmed they would be allowed to see the children and
even take them back if need be," he said.

Sainvil stressed that in Haiti it is not uncommon for parents who can't
support their children to send them to orphanages.

Even Prime Minister Max Bellerive has said he recognized the Americans may
simply have been well-meaning who believed their charitable Christian intent
justified trying to remove the children from quake-crippled Haiti.

Only minutes before the charges, the Americans' Dominican lawyer, Jorge
Puello, had said he expected at least nine of the 10 to be released and said
he was arranging a charter flight for them from Santo Domingo, the Dominican
capital.

After the Haitian lawyer's announcement, Puello could not be reached by
telephone for comment.

"I'm at the airport (in Santo Domingo) and we're getting the plane ready.
We're just waiting for the green light," Puello said. "I spoke to a source
inside the jail — a government official — who said nine would be released
but one would be held for further investigation."

___

Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Matthew Lee in
Washington contributed to this report.

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