Written by Janet
We all know of how bad it is in Haiti, all the devastation, and children left as orphans. But ten Baptists, have been detained in Haiti, after they were caught trying to take 33 children out of the country. Prime Minister Max Bellerive said today he is outraged by the group’s illegal trafficking of children in a country long afflicted by the scourge and by foreign meddling.
But Haiti is a poor country and many parents have already given their children to foreigners for a better life. Not all of these children are actually orphans, but many are separated from their parents, and officials are still trying to reunite them with their families. Haiti’s overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the quake amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold.
Anyone trying to leave with a child must now show proper documentation, and Bellerive’s personal authorization is now required for the departure of any child.
As for the Americans detained, it’s reported that the orphanage where the children were later taken said at least some of the kids have living parents, who were apparently told that the children were going on an extended holiday from the post-quake misery. The church group admitted the plan was to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.
The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labeled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high. The church members, most who are from Idaho say they are only trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. The children, ages 2 months to 12 years old, were taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children’s Villages. One 8 year old girl kept crying she wasn’t an orphan. The orphanage was working to reunite the children with their families, joining a concerted effort by the Haitian government, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other NGOs.
Meanwhile in Idaho, the Rev. Clint Henry denied the child trafficking charges. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the people resist foreign meddling, and many have mixed feelings toward Christian groups that funnel hundreds of millions into missions in Haiti.
Many religious groups run legitimate adoption agencies and orphanages in Haiti. Some of the children in them aren’t actually orphans, but have been left by relatives who can’t afford their care. The legitimate organizations in Haiti are trying to fight child trafficking.
A court hearing will be held Monday and the Americans are being held at judicial police headquarters. The religious groups involved are – members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. They are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is America’s largest Protestant denomination and has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide. The churches had planned after the earthquake to shelter 200 Haitian and Dominican boys and girls in the Magante beach resort, complete with a school and chapel as well as villas and a seaside cafe catering to adoptive U.S. parents.
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/ 02/01/2010An update:
The Haitian government is now talking to US officials, to see about sending the 10 to the US, to be prosecuted….
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584 … latestnews
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/ 02/03/2010Pastor: Arrest of missionaries a misunderstanding
A pastor who says he gave 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries permission to move a busload of Haitian children to the Dominican Republic says the group acted “with a good heart.”
However, he says they didn’t complete the required paperwork. The missionaries were later arrested after Haitian authorities said they tried crossing the border without documents.
Pastor Jean Sainvil told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the missionaries had approval from the parents of children who were not orphaned. He called the arrests a misunderstanding.
Sainvil says he was an adviser to the Idaho-based New Life Children’s Refuge because he spoke fluent French Creole and Spanish and had knowledge of Haiti.
The pastor says he was not with the missionaries when they were arrested because he was ill.
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/ 02/03/2010A pastor who says he gave 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries permission to move a busload of Haitian children to the Dominican Republic says the group acted “with a good heart.”
However, he says they didn’t complete the required paperwork. The missionaries were later arrested after Haitian authorities said they tried crossing the border without documents.
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/ 02/03/2010Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued a statement about this situation >>>
The attempt to bring undocumented children out of Haiti by 10 American missionaries now detained in the country was >unfortunate< and that they should have followed proper procedures. The Americans should not have taken matters into their own hands by bringing children from earthquake-ravaged Haiti to the Dominican Republic and should have followed proper adoption procedures. She said U.S. officials were in discussions with Haitian authorities about how to resolve the case.
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/ 02/03/2010Parents in this struggling village above Haiti’s capital said Wednesday they willingly handed their children to American missionaries who showed up in a bus promising to give them a better life — contradicting claims by the Baptist group’s leader that the children came from orphanages and distant relatives.
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/ 02/04/2010Attorney says US Baptists charged in child case
A Haitian attorney says 10 Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the Jan. 12 earthquake have been charged with child kidnapping.
Edwin Coq says the Americans also are charged with criminal association. The 10 appeared in court Thursday and were whisked away to a jail in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince.
Coq attended the session and has represented the group here.
Just minutes earlier, an attorney for the Americans in the neighboring Dominican Republic had said he expected nine of the 10 members of an Idaho-based church group were going to be released.
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/ 02/05/2010Lawyer seeks release of US missionaries in Haiti
The lawyer for 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries who tried to take three dozen children out of the country said Friday he would ask a judge to let his clients go free until their trial on kidnapping charges. Defense attorney Edwin Coq told reporters he would ask the judge to grant the missionaries “provisional release,” a type of bail without money posted, until their trial, a date for which has not been established.
The investigating judge charged the Americans on Thursday with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation.
The missionaries’ detention has raised concerns among other countries including France, whose foreign ministry on Friday urged the Haitian government to quickly set up a bilateral commission to look into adoption procedures. French families have taken in 277 Haitian children since the quake.
Also of Idaho’s congressional delegation said in a statement Thursday that they are working to ensure the missionaries have access to legal help and medical attention.
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/ 02/05/2010The judge refused to release the 10 Americans today after spending half a day in court. A judge scheduled three more days of hearings next week, starting Monday. He also ordered the 10 not to talk to the press. On Friday, 3 national leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention sent a letter Friday to President Barack Obama urging him to “do everything within the authority of your office to secure a safe return home” for the detainees.
The leaders added that they could not “speak authoritatively about the motives and actions” of those detained, saying they went to Haiti on their own and weren’t part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s international relief efforts.
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/ 02/06/2010Hmm, now it gets interesting. The attorney from Haiti that was representing the 10 Americans, Edwin Coq, has been fired by the attorney now hired by the families of the 10, Jorge Puello, who is from the Dominican Republic. Coq, the Haitian attorney, had demanded $60,000 as his fee from the families.
Coq orchestrated “some kind of extortion with government officials” that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries, the new attorney says. Puello said Coq initially requested $10,000 but kept asking for bigger and bigger amounts. He said that when Coq reached $60,000, he said he could guarantee it would lead to the Americans’ release.
Puello, the new attorney now says that the group leader misled the other nine Americans, assuring them that she had the proper papers.
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/ 02/09/2010The ten detained are now asking the US government to get involved. Five of the prisoners were questioned Monday by the investigating judge, Bernard Saint-Vil. The other five are expected to be questioned by him later Tuesday. The judge said in an interview that he planned to hear from the Americans as a group on Wednesday.
But the American officials have said they intend to let the Haitian justice system take its course. The case is politically delicate for Haiti because the United States is spearheading much of the humanitarian effort. No one, including American officials and the group’s original lawyer, had informed them of the status of their case.
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/ 02/09/2010Hillary Clinton has received a letter from US based attorney Jim Allen asking for her intervention in the case of the detainees in Haiti. In the letter he states that the attorneys are concerned their client may not have adequate legal representation and has not been able to speak with his wife, Lisa, since being arrested in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.
They are asking Clinton to speak directly to Haitian authorities about letting the families of the detainees talk with them to ensure their well-being. The State Department said Tuesday that the detainees – who insist they are innocent and were on a humanitarian mission – had been receiving consular visits from U.S. diplomats and that it would be unusual for Clinton or any secretary of state to get personally involved.
However, Crowley said U.S. officials had been in touch with Haitian authorities about what might happen if Haitian courts were unable to handle the case.
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/ 02/10/2010Idaho woman faced financial woes before Haiti trip
In the days after the Haiti earthquake, Laura Silsby made a series of calls around the country to mobilize a trip to rescue orphaned children from the disaster.
She enlisted members of her Baptist church and told them she had all the necessary paperwork. She even found a Kentucky couple, Richard and Malinda Pickett, who had been trying to adopt three siblings from Haiti and told them she could get the children out.
The Picketts say they politely declined, figuring the youngsters were safe and would soon be evacuated to their new home.
“My wife told her that under no conditions should she try to move the kids — that would just interfere with our plans. But she called two more times, and the last time she called, on the 25th, she said she was getting on a flight and would like to pick up our kids,” Richard Pickett said. “My wife, for the third time, told her no way — stay away from them.”
A few days later, Silsby and nine other Americans were charged in Haiti with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of the country without proper documentation. The 10 defendants remain in jail in Haiti.
The Haitian and U.S. governments are investigating Silsby and her group, trying to determine why they were rounding up children, many of whom were not orphans. Silsby and her supporters say they just wanted to save youngsters from the chaos, disease and uncertainty of quake-ravaged Haiti. Others, like the Picketts, aren’t convinced.
A closer look at Silsby shows that the adoption fiasco followed a certain pattern seen in her life. The 40-year-old businesswoman and mother of two has been known to make big promises and big plans that often give way to questionable behavior and legal action.
Court records show she has a habit of failing to pay employees, creditors and taxes. In the last year alone saw her home go into foreclosure and watched a number of legal proceedings against her and her business wend their way through Idaho’s courts.
All of this happened as she became highly passionate about helping kids in the Dominican Republic, according to those who know her.
“She had explained that she felt absolutely driven in her heart to open an orphanage in the Dominican Republic,” said Nancy Batteen, owner of a children’s second-hand clothing store in Boise where Silsby shopped.
Silsby showed her knack for achievement early, earning a high school diploma at 15, according to an old news release from her company. She went on to study business administration and accounting at Washington State University, graduating summa cum laude in 1991.
She took a job with Hewlett Packard in Boise, working for six years in financing and Internet marketing positions.
In 2000, Silsby and a man named James Hammons patented a method for creating and operating a personalized Internet store. She used the method to found a company that would do business under the name Avenue Me. The goal, Silsby told associates, was to create an online personalized shopping experience for those too busy to dig through several stores or Web sites.
She hired Boise multimedia marketing company Wirestone to build her Web site, but soon stopped paying the bills, said Mark Salow, a former Wirestone manager. Wirestone ultimately sued after Silsby fell tens of thousands of dollars behind in paying for the work, Salow said.
“She was always telling us, ‘We had this great meeting, and you’ll be paid soon,’” Salow said. “There was always some investor that was going to come in and save the day.”
Those promises didn’t sway a judge, who ruled in Wirestone’s favor. The business seized computers and office furniture from Avenue Me to settle the debt in a pennies-on-the-dollar deal.
In 2004, Silsby filed for divorce from her husband, Terry Silsby. The divorce became final in 2007, but the two sides are still fighting in court.
In 2008, she bought a newly built five-bedroom home on a half-acre lot in Meridian — which the bank foreclosed on last December.
At the same time, several employees of her company — now called Personal Shopper after a trademark dispute — were filing claims against Silsby over unpaid wages. One former employee, Robin Oliver, said she was hired for $110,000 a year and sued after Silsby fell five paychecks behind.
Oliver said Silsby kept telling her that new investors had agreed to fund the company, but the cash never showed up. Oliver’s attorney said Silsby claimed at various times that potential investors included NBC, a private equity firm and a high-powered public relations expert.
Silsby contended that Oliver drastically cut her own hours and was working ineffectively and had to be fired. Silsby also noted that although she had faced a series of other wage claims, all those cases had been settled. Oliver’s lawsuit is set to go to trial Feb. 22.
“For many employees who chose to work for startup companies, getting an immediate paycheck can, and often does, take a back seat to other priorities: Seeing the company succeed, getting in on the ground floor, getting paid more later in the form of stock options and bonuses, to name just a few,” Silsby wrote in court documents.
It is not clear if her money problems were related in any way to the adoption effort in Haiti, but the financial aspects of the trip will clearly be scrutinized during the investigation.
The Picketts said they were immediately suspicious of Silsby. The Kentucky couple didn’t need her help — the government had already given them permission to go pick up the children. But Silsby persisted, they said.
She showed up at the Compassion for All orphanage in Haiti, asking to collect the Picketts’ three adopted children and claiming to be Malinda Pickett’s friend, according to Richard Pickett.
When the orphanage told her the children had been moved, Silsby went on to ask for any other kids she could have, Richard Pickett said. She paid a worker to take her to other orphanages in the region and translate for her.
“She asked for kids at each of the orphanages, and at the end of the day when no one would give her any, she cried,” Richard Pickett said. “Why would you cry after you see these kids are being taken care of?”
The Picketts’ adopted children are now with the couple in Bowling Green, Ky. Richard Pickett said he was recently interviewed by an agent with the Department of Homeland Security who is helping investigate the Silsby case.
The Haiti effort was not Silsby’s first attempt to help children overseas. She worked with a local teacher to create a nonprofit group called Kids Changing Lives With the Gift of Smile. Through the organization, school teachers encouraged their students to raise money for Operation Smile, which performs surgery on children to correct cleft palates and other facial deformities. Operation Smile spokesman Scott Vooss said Silsby and schoolchildren have raised nearly $40,000 so far — enough to cover about 166 operations.
“I absolutely don’t question their motives, but who knows?” Batteen said. “There’s no question in my mind that they weren’t trying to traffic children. Anybody that knows them knows that.”
Silsby’s sister, gift shop owner Kim Barton, declined to comment on Silsby’s charitable work or her business. But she gave The Associated Press a written statement on behalf of Silsby’s family and friends.
“We want the world to know that Laura is a good, caring, and loving human being,” it said. “We know that her deepest desire is to help — never to harm — the children whose lives were turned upside down by the earthquake in Haiti.”
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/ 02/10/2010A Haitian judge will order the release of 10 American missionaries who were arrested for taking 33 children and trying to transport them out of the country. The Americans could be released as early as Thursday. One thing an investigating judge seeks in a criminal investigation is criminal intentions on the part of the people involved and there is nothing that shows that criminal intention on the part of the Americans.
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/ 02/11/2010He is recommending release, and all the paperwork has to go to the prosecutor, who could object, but the judge has the final say.
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/ 02/17/2010A Hatian judge says that some of the 10 will be released today. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil would not specify how many people would be released, but said they would be allowed to return home without posting bail if they agreed to return to Haiti for any more questions in the pending investigation.
One of the Americans, who is diabetic, was taken to a field hospital. Charisa Coulter of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment but was then taken back to jail. Neither her condition nor reason for the treatment was not immediately known. Also, the lawyer for the jailed ten say he has been restricted from visiting his clients. Lawyers are only allowed 3 or 5 minute visits. The group is also embarrassed by the first man claiming to be an attorney, who represented them when in fact, he had no license to practice law in Haiti. U.S. Marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.
Puello, as he has been known most recently, said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed. The Haitian attorney, Fleurant, also has accused Puello of absconding with most the fee relatives of the Americans gave the Dominican to pay him. Puello was convicted of theft of U.S. government property in 1999 in Pennsylvania and sentenced to 6 months in prison and 5 years probation, according to court documents. In 2001, a court found he violated the terms of his probation and issued a warrant for his arrest.
If the US knew all of this, why didn’t they step in when he came forward to represent the jailed 10?
Janet
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/ 02/19/20103 detained in Haiti return to Idaho
Three of the eight missionaries that had been detained in Haiti for three weeks have returned to Idaho.
Nearly 200 people holding balloons and signs greeted Carla Thompson and Corinna and Nicole Lankford with cheers and hymns when they arrived at the Boise airport early Friday morning.
Corinna Lankford cried as she hugged one of her children and noticed his missing teeth had begun to grow in while she was jailed.
The women said they were praying for Charisa Coulter and Laura Silsby as they remained in the Haiti prison. Corinna Lankford said she had no regrets about the trip.
The eight missionaries were released Wednesday and flew to Miami. Some of their colleagues traveled on to Kansas City.
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/ 02/21/2010The Associate Press just said that none of the 33 children in the compay=ny of the baptists were orphans…all had families.
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/ 03/02/2010Haiti judge not ready to release 2 U.S. missionaries
The judge isn’t ready to release the remaining two missionaries in Haiti. The judge had said earlier that testimony from three witnesses about the missionaries’ efforts to set up an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic would allow him to free Laura Silsby, 40, and Charisa Coulter, 24.
The Dominican witnesses gave the expected testimony Tuesday at a meeting in his office, the judge told The Associated Press — but then he said he still needed to deliver all his evidence to the prosecutor general’s office and await its reply. Once the prosecutor responds, the judge can drop the charges all together or continue his investigation while releasing the two Baptist missionaries. In either case they would be free to leave Haiti.
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/ 03/14/2010US missionary detained in Haiti returns to Idaho
A U.S. missionary who was released from a Haiti jail last week has returned to her home in Idaho after spending several days recuperating in Florida.
Charisa Coulter, 24, arrived Saturday night at the Boise Airport, where her father, several other Idaho missionaries who had been detained, and dozens of others welcomed her by singing “Amazing Grace.”
Coulter is a diabetic and had medical difficulties during her five-week confinement. She was treated at least once during that time, on Feb. 1, by American doctors after collapsing from what she said was either severe dehydration or the flu.
She was freed March 8 but spent about six days in Florida recuperating after leaving Haiti.
Coulter said she was happy to be home but sad to leave behind her friend Laura Silsby, who remains in custody.
“I told her I loved her and that it was just a matter of time before she was here,” Coulter said of Silsby.
Coulter and Silsby were among 10 Baptist missionaries, mostly from Idaho, who were detained Jan. 29 trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after a devastating earthquake.
The other eight were released Feb. 17.
“We are 10 Christians who obeyed God’s calling, and we went to help the nation of Haiti and its children,” Coulter said Saturday night. “It didn’t go the way we planned. It’s hard to understand.”
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he has until early May to decide whether to release Silsby or order a trial.
“It’s all in God’s hands,” Coulter said. “I don’t know. We’re just going to sit back, and we’re going to let him do his job.”
Kim Barton, Silsby’s sister, released a statement asking people to pray for Silsby while she remains in custody.
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/ 04/11/2010Divisions arise over push for adoptions from Haiti
Logistical challenges and potentially bitter disputes lie ahead as passionate advocates of adoption press for changes that might enable thousands of Haitian children affected by the earthquake to be placed in U.S. homes.
The obstacles are daunting, starting with a need to register Haiti’s dislocated children. If done right, this would enable authorities to distinguish between children who might be good candidates for adoption and those with surviving relatives who could care for them.
There also will be efforts to overhaul Haiti’s troubled child protection system, update its adoption laws and boost support for family reunification programs in Haiti. But even before those goals are pursued, there are sharp divisions over how vigorously and quickly to seek an expansion of adoptions.
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/ 04/16/20109 missionaries have charges dropped
A lawyer says Haiti has dropped kidnapping charges against nine of the 10 U.S. missionaries who were arrested trying to take a busload of children out of the quake-ravaged country.
The group’s leader, Laura Silsby of Boise, Idaho, remains jailed in Haiti. The other nine were let go in February and early March and allowed to leave the country.
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/ 12/01/2010Adoption allowed for kids who survived Haiti quake
After months of uncertainty, the way has been cleared for U.S. families to adopt 12 Haitian children who’ve been living at a Roman Catholic institution near Pittsburgh since a chaotic airlift that followed the devastating earthquake in January.
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