European officials, especially ones posted in China, don’t often utter the words “sovereign” and “Dalai Lama” in the same sentence. But on Wednesday Belgium’s ambassador to Beijing, Bernard Pierre, did just that when he characterized the Dalai Lama’s cancellation of his planned visit to Brussels as a “sovereign decision.”
A Belgian court last week charged Hissène Habré, the former dictator of Chad, with crimes against humanity and torture, paving the way for him to be extradited from his exile in Senegal.
Last Tuesday I got an excited e-mail from Reed Brody, an activist at New York's Human Rights Watch. For years Mr. Brody has poured his heart into one case: the prosecution of former dictator Hissène Habré of Chad. Mr. Habré's regime is believed to have murdered 40,000 political opponents and tortured or imprisoned countless others during his eight-year reign of terror in the 1980s. The e-mail read: “CONFIDENTIAL — It looks like the Belgian judge will FINALLY indict Habré this week or next on atrocity charges.”
This week, justice came to Chad. On Thursday, a Belgian judge, acting under the authority of his country's controversial, and since repealed, long-arm anti-atrocity statute, indicted Hissène Habré, the exiled ex-dictator who brutalized the impoverished African country from 1982 to 1990, on charges of torture and crimes against humanity.
A Belgian judge has indicted Hissene Habre, the former dictator of Chad, for large-scale human rights violations and issued an international warrant for his arrest, the Justice Ministry announced Thursday.
Souleymane Guengueng had good reason to celebrate yesterday. His long march in search of justice from the Chadian dictator he accuses of torture could soon be over.
Mr Guengueng, 53, wears thick glasses after almost losing his eyesight in jail, where he says he was subjected to total darkness followed by periods of powerful light. The former civil servant told The Independent in an interview two years ago: 'I did not know if it was night or day. There were eight of us
in the cell built for a single person: my skin peeled off in the stifling heat.'
Israel has reacted angrily to a ruling by Belgium's Supreme Court that
leaves the way open for an investigation into the alleged role of Ariel Sharon in a
1982 massacre. Yet Belgium is doing what all countries are supposed to do -
enforcing the most basic norms of humanity.
BRUSSELS -- Israel has reacted angrily to a ruling by Belgium's Supreme Court that leaves the way open for an investigation into the alleged role of Ariel Sharon in a 1982 massacre. Yet Belgium is doing what all countries are supposed to do - enforcing the most basic norms of humanity.
European officials, especially ones posted in China, don’t often utter the words “sovereign” and “Dalai Lama” in the same sentence. But on Wednesday Belgium’s ambassador to Beijing, Bernard Pierre, did just that when he characterized the Dalai Lama’s cancellation of his planned visit to Brussels as a “sovereign decision.”
A Belgian court last week charged Hissène Habré, the former dictator of Chad, with crimes against humanity and torture, paving the way for him to be extradited from his exile in Senegal.
Last Tuesday I got an excited e-mail from Reed Brody, an activist at New York's Human Rights Watch. For years Mr. Brody has poured his heart into one case: the prosecution of former dictator Hissène Habré of Chad. Mr. Habré's regime is believed to have murdered 40,000 political opponents and tortured or imprisoned countless others during his eight-year reign of terror in the 1980s. The e-mail read: “CONFIDENTIAL — It looks like the Belgian judge will FINALLY indict Habré this week or next on atrocity charges.”
This week, justice came to Chad. On Thursday, a Belgian judge, acting under the authority of his country's controversial, and since repealed, long-arm anti-atrocity statute, indicted Hissène Habré, the exiled ex-dictator who brutalized the impoverished African country from 1982 to 1990, on charges of torture and crimes against humanity.
A Belgian judge has indicted Hissene Habre, the former dictator of Chad, for large-scale human rights violations and issued an international warrant for his arrest, the Justice Ministry announced Thursday.
Souleymane Guengueng had good reason to celebrate yesterday. His long march in search of justice from the Chadian dictator he accuses of torture could soon be over.
Mr Guengueng, 53, wears thick glasses after almost losing his eyesight in jail, where he says he was subjected to total darkness followed by periods of powerful light. The former civil servant told The Independent in an interview two years ago: 'I did not know if it was night or day. There were eight of us
in the cell built for a single person: my skin peeled off in the stifling heat.'
Israel has reacted angrily to a ruling by Belgium's Supreme Court that
leaves the way open for an investigation into the alleged role of Ariel Sharon in a
1982 massacre. Yet Belgium is doing what all countries are supposed to do -
enforcing the most basic norms of humanity.
BRUSSELS -- Israel has reacted angrily to a ruling by Belgium's Supreme Court that leaves the way open for an investigation into the alleged role of Ariel Sharon in a 1982 massacre. Yet Belgium is doing what all countries are supposed to do - enforcing the most basic norms of humanity.