Senegalese President Urged to Aid Rights Prosecution

(New York, June 27, 2001)
In February 2000, Hissène Habré, known as the "African Pinochet," was
indicted in Senegal on charges of torture and crimes against humanity.
It was the first time that an African had been charged with atrocities
by the court of another
African country. But after repeated interference by President Wade,
which drew protests from United Nations monitors on the independence of
the judiciary and on torture, Senegal's highest court ruled in March
2001 that Habré could not be tried in Senegal for crimes committed in
Chad. Habré's victims
argued that this decision violated the 1984 United Nations Convention
against Torture which required
Senegal to prosecute alleged torturers,
and announced that they would seek Habré's extradition to
Belgium, where a criminal investigation against Habré is
also underway.

On April 7, however, President Wade announced that he had asked Habré to
leave Senegal. The victims, fearing that Habré would move out of the
reach an extradition request, appealed to the United Nations Committee
Against Torture, which called on Senegal "not to expel Mr. Hissène Habré
and to take all necessary measures to prevent Mr. Hissène Habré from
leaving Senegalese territory except pursuant to an extradition demand."

Just before coming to the United States, however, President Wade told
journalists that he was still seeking the dictator's departure and
claimed that the United Nations had not asked Senegal to hold Habré.

"Hissène Habré is an African Pinochet who should face justice for his
crimes," said Reed Brody, Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch, who
represents the victims before the United Nations. "President Wade
should support this landmark effort to enforce the rule of law
instead of shielding one of Africa's worst criminals."

Senegalese organizations protested President Wade's continuing efforts
to shield Habré. "My country has always been a leader in human rights,"
said Alioune Tine of the Dakar-based African Assembly for the Defense of
Human Rights (RADDHO). "But the shenanigans surrounding this case are
really hurting our reputation and betraying Habré's victims who placed
their faith in Senegal and took its ratification of the Torture
Convention seriously."

Habré, now 58, took power in Chad in 1982. Habré's one-party regime,
supported by the United States and France, was marked by widespread
abuse and campaigns against the ethnic Sara (1984), Hadjerai (1987) and
the Zaghawa (1989). Habré was deposed in December 1990 and has lived in
Senegal since. A truth commission accused Habré's government of 40,000
murders and systematic torture.

Brody also announced that Human Rights Watch had written to other
governments, advising them that Habré's victims will seek to bring him
to justice wherever he goes.

The United Nations Committee against Torture is composed of 10 experts
elected by the 123 states which have ratified the Torture Convention.
States usually comply with its decisions. President Wade, whose election
in March 2000 ended decades of one-party rule in Senegal, is in the
United States to attend the U.N. Special Session on AIDS. He will be
meeting with President George W. Bush on June 28, together with the
presidents of Ghana and Mali.

For more information on the case of Hissène Habré, please see:

The Case Against Hissène Habré (HRW Campaign Page) at
http://www.hrw.org/justice/habre/