2010-12-17

https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/869353

US aid worker accused of kidnapping baby in Haiti

Paul Waggoner: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/17/aid-worker-accused-kidnap-haiti

Paul Waggoner, co-founder of a group that provides medical supplies and transport for aid missions, is expected to be spend the next few months in Haiti's overcrowded National Penitentiary.

Waggoner and members of his organisation, Materials Management Relief Corps, said the 15-month-old baby he is accused of taking died at a hospital with fever and gastrointestinal distress in February.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Waggoner's lawyer showed a death certificate to prove the baby died months ago. But the child's father, Frantz Philistin, insists the boy is alive and his lawyer said he doubted the document was authentic.

Gets quite interesting

Philistin filed a lawsuit against the hospital in March. Waggoner left the country fearing retribution from the father but returned soon after. Philistin spotted Waggoner and Sebring with several friends at in a restaurant on Sunday and called police. The Americans were arrested, though all but Waggoner were released.

Not to fear, a couple of days later, he got let off.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-12095005

"It went from kidnapping to selling him to selling him into the United States for adoption to a priest saying that he was still alive," the aid worker told the CNN news network upon his release.

A justice official in Haiti said that although Mr Waggoner had been released, the investigation was still ongoing.

Guess who was secretary of state at the time?

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2007-08-17

https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/358235

100 children remain in hands of traffickers in Haiti:

Some 100 children in urgent need of medical help remained in the hands of traffickers in Haiti who were seeking to sell them for adoption, one week after 48 kids were rescued from the same place, an intergovernmental organization said Friday.

"Most were suffering from malnutrition, severe diarrhea, dehydration, and skin diseases," the Geneva-based organisation said. "Many parents had difficulties recognizing their children upon their return home."

According to the IOM, the 48 children from the impoverished Grande Anse region had been "given away" by their parents to traffickers who had promised to help them and taken to an adoption centre in Port-au-Prince.

SOUNDS FAMILIAR? Giving children away for adoption, sounds very similiar to Laura Silsby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Life_Children's_Refuge_case

"One government official revealed that during an unannounced visit made a few days before the rescue, the children were hidden in the basement, frightened and filthy," the IOM said. "Neighbours have confirmed that they often heard children crying."

"If urgent sensitisation measures are not carried out in the region, there is a risk that destitute parents will continue to give their children away and these ruthless traffickers will continue to thrive in Haiti's more destitute areas," Geslet Bordes, manager of IOM's child trafficking programme in Haiti, said in a statement.