Thousands of miles from the scene, there is no way to know the whole story about 10 Americans detained in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The legal and diplomatic processes will dispassionately sort out the facts about the detainees, which include five members of Meridian's Central Valley Baptist Church. Let the process work.

What we know now reflects a jumble of conflicting accounts, clouded by deep emotions.

The 10 Americans were attempting to move a busload of 33 children out of Haiti on Friday. Haitian authorities detained the Americans near the border of the Dominican Republic.

Church officials say their members were acting as rescuers and did not realize that they needed government paperwork to transport the children from an earthquake zone. The group had been working with Dominican authorities. Prior to their arrest, the group had planned to return to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to gather the paperwork, said Laura Silsby of Boise, one of the detainees.

The Haitian government has not formally charged the Americans - which is one reason why, on Tuesday, church leaders demanded the detainees' release. But in a New York Times interview, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive made clear that his government views the incident differently and takes the case seriously. The Americans, he said, were "kidnappers" who knew their actions ran afoul of the law.

No middle ground here. Were the Americans well-intentioned - albeit woefully naive about international law? Or were they engaged in a criminal act in a nation where leaders believe they must, in the aftermath of catastrophe, take an unflinching stand against the abhorrent act of human trafficking?

We can all hope for a quick resolution, both for the Haitian children and for the American detainees and their families. But that does not warrant a jump to conclusions - which, absent the facts, is premature and irresponsible. And yet, in an emotional case such as this, too many of us feel qualified and entitled to reach a snap judgment.

In a curious twist, this entire case might unfold not in a Haitian courtroom, but in America. With his nation's infrastructure in disarray, Bellerive has said he is willing to consider turning the case over to the U.S. courts.

If and wherever this case comes to a trial, the verdict will not come quickly enough to meet our desire for answers on demand. This is an unrealistic expectation, fed by 24-hour cable news and the instant court-of-public-opinion deliberations that occur on blogs and online commentary sites. Adjudicating a case would take time, but it's worth the wait - and is especially warranted in a situation such as this.

"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.