By Anna Willard
PARIS (Reuters) - France is prepared to pass to Chad anyrequest for a pardon of six French aid workers jailed forabducting children from Chad, President Nicolas Sarkozy'sspokesman said on Thursday.
Chad's president, Idriss Deby, who last week received theendorsement of the former colonial power as he fought off arebel attack on his capital, has said he is ready to issue apardon.
The aid workers were arrested in Chad in October for tryingto kidnap 103 local children, who they attempted to take toEurope without permission from the authorities. They were giveneight years' hard labour, but allowed to serve their sentencesin French jails.
The episode caused outrage in Chad and their group, Zoe'sArk, was widely criticised at home for acting irresponsibly.
But anti-French street protests and the harsh tone of somecomments in Chad also angered many in France who felt the grouphad been misguided but not essentially malevolent.
"Of course if the members of Zoe's Ark sent us a requestfor a pardon, we would immediately transmit it to the Chadianauthorities," Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon told a regularnews briefing in Paris.
"As you know, pardons are only granted on request and it'snot up to governments to ask."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani denied therewas a link between France's support for Deby and hiswillingness to pardon the aid workers. She said each individualwould have to make a separate request.
Zoe's Ark said during the affair that it was rescuingorphans from Sudan's Darfur region, a conflict zone acrossChad's eastern border, and that it intended to fly them tofoster families in Europe.
Most of the children were found to have come from familiesin Chadian border villages who had been persuaded to give uptheir offspring in exchange for promises of education.
Deby confirmed his intention to France's Europe 1 radio onThursday.
"I am ready to pardon them," he said. "The Chadian childrendid not leave ... we were able to avoid the worst."
(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Anna Willard; editing byKevin Liffey)
