Judge lets detained Baptists out of jail

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Eight American missionaries were freed from a Haitian jail and left for Miami yesterday, nearly three weeks after being charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country.

Reporters watched as the United States Air Force C-130 cargo plane carrying the group took off from the tarmac. Officials from the US Embassy and State Department confirmed that the Americans were on the plane.

The group's rapid departure from Haiti began when Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail after parents of the children testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.

"The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released," he said, adding that he still wanted to question the group's leader and her nanny.

Hours later, just after dusk, the bedraggled and sweaty-looking group walked out of the Haitian jail escorted by US diplomats. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles and giving a thumbs-up to reporters.

The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on January 29 without proper documents.

Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions after the earthquake.

The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.

Group leader Laura Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said they hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.

Saint-Vil said he still wanted to question Silsby and nanny Charisa Coulter about their visit to Haiti in December before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be sent to hospital because of her diabetes.

Yesterday, Coulter, of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment but was then taken back to jail.

"We are very pleased that Paul, Silas, Drew and Steve have been released by the Haitian court," said Caleb Stegall, a Kansas district attorney who has been helping some of the defendants.

"Their families are relieved and anxious to have them safely home, and we are turning all of our energies toward bringing them back as safely and quickly as possible."

Gary Lissade, the lawyer for freed detainee Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.

The group earlier had been embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.

US 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 US parole violation.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised hundreds of millions for Haitian aid yesterday, saying France will help its long-ago colony turn a new page in a history bedevilled by slavery, debt and poverty.

Sarkozy and President Rene Preval toured a French field hospital and viewed the earthquake-devastated capital from a helicopter.

"France will stand by the responsibilities of its shared history and friendship with Haiti," Sarkozy said in announcing an aid package worth a total of €326 million ($630 million).

"Let's not kid ourselves," he said. "The wounds of colonisation and, perhaps even worse, the way in which we separated, have left traces that are still raw in the memory of Haitians."

As Sarkozy spoke at a news conference on in the grounds of the crumbled National Palace, a few hundred protesters outside blamed France for Haiti's poverty.

They demanded the French pay back, with interest, the 90 million gold francs demanded by Napoleon to recognise the 1804 independence of Haiti - the world's first black republic and the only country to stage a successful slave rebellion.

It took Haitians nearly 150 years to pay that debt, which was compensation for slaves and other "property" of French plantation owners. The economy of Haiti, once France's richest colony, never recovered.

Asked about the demand for reparations, Sarkozy said France has cancelled all of Haiti's €56 million debt to Paris and pointed to the aid package, which includes the forgiven debt.

It also includes €40 million in budget support for Haiti's Government that Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive called significant because it matches the amount France gives to French non-governmental organisations operating in Haiti. AP