Bill Clinton in appeal for kidnap 10

Published on Saturday 6 February 2010 19:34

HAITI and America were yesterday urged by former US president Bill Clinton to resolve the case of ten missionaries accused of child abduction.

He made the appeal during a visit to the shattered Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, his second since last month's disaster.

The missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were charged on Thursday with kidnapping and criminal association.

Haitian authorities say the group tried to take a busload of 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic without the necessary legal permission.

The missionaries deny any intentional wrongdoing and say they were only trying to help children left destitute by the 12 January earthquake, which killed at least 150,000 people.

"What's important now is for the government of Haiti and the government of the United States to get together and work through this," Clinton, appointed by the UN to co-ordinate relief efforts for survivors of the devastating 12 January quake, told reporters in Port-au-Prince.

He added: "The government of Haiti is not looking for some big fight here. They just want to protect their children and they also want to make sure they have a good inventory so they don't send children away that maybe have an aunt or an uncle that have an income."