Paris - A French television channel is to broadcast a damning behind-the-scenes look at an attempt by French charity Zoe's Ark to fly more than 100 children out of Chad to France.
Seventeen Europeans and four Chadians face charges in Chad ranging from kidnapping to complicity in the affair.
The case arose from an attempt by the charity to take children it said were war orphans from the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur and airlift them to France.
The footage, to be aired by French channel M6, was shot by Capa news agency journalist Marc Garmirian, who is among those detained in the central African country.
The scenes indicated that the operation's illegality was "perfectly accepted" by the charity, Capa chief Herve Chabalier said Friday after some footage was shown to journalists.
The charity "has a naive side but also a determination to pull off their humanitarian mission."
Zoe's Ark has argued it was saving orphans from the Darfur region, which is in Sudan but shares a border with Chad.
The charity wanted to flying 103 allegedly Sudanese children to France, where French families had paid thousands of euros each to look after them.
But Chadian authorities who detained and subsequently charged members of the charity, flight crew and three reporters say the operation amounted to kidnapping.
The mission has been denounced by the United Nations children's fund and other non-government organisations, who have called into question the nationality and orphan status of the children.
Garmirian's footage shows the convoy carrying the children ready to drive to the Abeche airport in eastern Chad on October 25.
Charity staff can be seen creating fake wounds on the children to convince Chadian officials they are evacuating them for health reasons.
Another scene focuses on an exchange between Zoe's Ark President Eric Breteau and the charity's Chadian employees, who wanted to know if the Chadian authorities were aware of the operation.
"Our operation is not going to bother them because these aren't Chadian but Sudanese children," replies Breteau.
The footage also shows Zoe's Ark appearing to deceive local authorities.
In one case, village chiefs arrive at the association's centre in Abeche with three little children. Their parents are dead, the chiefs say, and their aunts do not want to care for them.
But the chiefs appear not to understand the operation's goal.
"Zoe's Ark had asked for authorisation to create an orphanage in Abeche," Capa's Chabalier said.
Of reporter Garmirian he added: "Marc was there to try to understand this particular operation which seemed weird. But there was not a single minute when the children's lives were threatened or when they were mistreated."
Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno said on Thursday he hoped the three journalists and seven Spanish flight crew would be freed, as requested by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. - Sapa-AFP