Chad president considering pardon of ‘Darfur orphan’ airlift workers News
Chad president considering pardon of ‘Darfur orphan’ airlift workers

[JURIST] Chadian President Idriss Deby said Thursday that he is prepared to pardon [recorded audio, in French] six aid workers convicted in Chad in December of attempting to kidnap [JURIST reports] 103 African children. In an interview with Europe-1 radio, Deby said that he was willing to issue a pardon but could only do so if he received a request from France. A French court sentenced the workers to eight years in prison in January after Chadian authorities allowed them to return to France [JURIST reports] in late December.

The aid workers, affiliated with Zoe's Ark [advocacy website], said they were attempting to airlift orphaned children [JURIST news archive] from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, but investigations revealed that most of the children were not Sudanese or orphans. In January, another aid worker was charged in French court [JURIST report] with conspiring to allow illegal residents into the country in connection with the foiled airlift. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

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