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Prime Minister Max Bellerive has suggested the Americans could be prosecuted in the United States because Haiti's shattered court system may not be able to cope with a trial. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the attempt to bring undocumented children out of Haiti was "unfortunate whatever the motivation" and the Americans should have followed proper procedures. She said U.S. officials were in discussions with Haitian authorities about how to resolve the case. Lelly said he is worried the Haitian judicial system will not properly investigate the case. No Haitian police or social welfare investigators have visited the village since the Americans were arrested at the border, the parents said. "I would like to find out if these people were really going to help the kids or were trying to steal them," Lelly said.
The children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, are now being cared for at the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince. 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.
[Associated
Press;
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