By Stephanie Hancock

N'DJAMENA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Six French nationals detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children to Europe started a hunger strike late on Friday, complaining their case was being neglected, a legal source said.

The six members of French humanitarian activist group Zoe's Ark were arrested in Chad on Oct. 25 as they tried to fly the children, aged 1-10, out of the central African country.

"They have been on hunger strike since last night," a legal source in Chad's capital N'Djamena, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. He said they were refusing food but were drinking water.

The source said the group had begun the protest because they felt that no one was listening to their case, that they had been abandoned by the French government and that a Chadian official involved in the case had not been arrested.

He also said it had been decided that the trial of the six, who face charges of fraud and abduction and could be sentenced to forced labour terms if convicted, would be held in Chad and that it would start in the coming weeks.

Neither lawyers for the French nationals nor Chadian court officials were immediately available to comment.

Zoe's Ark had said it wanted to fly orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region to Europe for fostering by families but U.N. officials who questioned the children said most were not orphans and came from villages on the Chad-Sudan border.

The seven-member Spanish crew of a chartered plane, three French journalists and a Belgian pilot arrested with the group were later released after French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to Chad to discuss the case with his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby.

France has strongly condemned the Zoe's Ark operation but the case has strained relations with its former colony ahead of the planned deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force in the restive east, due in the coming weeks. (Writing by Nick Tattersall)

AlertNet news is provided by