As Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade prepares to meet with President Bush Thursday, Human Rights Watch urged him to comply with a United Nations request to hold the exiled Chadian dictator Hissène Habré so that Habré could be extradited to face torture charges.
In February 2000, Hissene Habre 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 Habre could not be tried in Senegal for crimes committed in Chad. Habre'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 Habre's extradition to Belgium, where a criminal investigation against Habre is also underway.
On April 7, however, President Wade announced that he had asked Habre to leave Senegal. The victims, fearing that Habre 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. Hissene Habreand to take all necessary measures to prevent Mr. Hissene Habre 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 Habre.
"Hissene Habre 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 Habre. "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 Habre's victims who placed their faith in Senegal and took its ratification of the Torture Convention seriously."
Habre, now 58, took power in Chad in 1982. Habre'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). Habre was deposed in December 1990 and has lived in Senegal since. A truth commission accused Habr?s government of 40,000 murders and systematic torture.
Brody also announced that Human Rights Watch had written to other governments, advising them that Habre'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.
