Senegal prepared Monday to begin the trial of former Chadian
dictator Hissene Habre, 25 years after he fled there following an eight-year
bloodsoaked reign of terror at home.
Once dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet”, the 72-year-old has been in
custody in Senegal since his arrest in June 2013 at the home he shared in an
affluent suburb of Dakar with his wife and children.
Rights groups say 40,000 Chadians were killed between 1982
and 1990 under a regime propped up by fierce crackdowns on opponents and the
targeting of rival ethnic groups he perceived as a threat to his stranglehold
on the central African nation.
Delayed for years by Senegal, the trial will set a historic
precedent as until now African leaders accused of atrocities have been tried in
international courts.
Senegal and the African Union signed an agreement in
December 2012 to set up a court to bring Habre to justice.
The AU had mandated Senegal to try Habre in July 2006, but
the country stalled the process for years under former president Abdoulaye
Wade, who was defeated in 2012 elections.
Habre was also wanted for trial in Belgium on war crimes and
crimes against humanity charges after three Belgian nationals of Chadian origin
filed a suit in 2000 for arbitrary arrest, mass murder and torture.
Macky Sall, Wade’s successor who took office in April 2012,
ruled out extraditing Habre to Belgium, vowing to organise a trial in Senegal.
“This is the first case anywhere in the world — not just in
Africa — where the courts of one country, Senegal, are prosecuting the former
leader of another, Chad, for alleged human rights crimes,” Reed Brody, a lawyer
at Human Rights Watch (HRW) told AFP.
No comments:
Post a Comment