Nelson Mandela’s Captive Audience: Ray of Light

Op-Ed Contributor

By SOULEYMANE GUENGUENG

During the dictatorship of Hissène Habré in Chad, I was wrongfully accused of political activity and imprisoned. Our jail was infested with insects, and the heat was nearly unbearable. Packed in our cells, we had to take turns to sleep, often on top of the corpses of other prisoners who had died from torture, disease or malnutrition. We were forbidden to pray aloud. And every night, President Habré’s political police took away prisoners who never returned.

As we were cut off from the outside world, our only news was that brought by new prisoners. It was thus that Brahim, a man who would later die in jail, told us that Nelson Mandela had been freed and had walked out of prison a hero.

The news was a ray of light in our dark prison. If Mr. Mandela could survive 27 years, then there was hope for us too. From the depths of that madness, I took an oath before God that if I did get out alive, I would fight for justice. Although I contracted hepatitis, dengue fever and malaria, I did survive. When Mr. Habré was overthrown in December 1990 and fled to Senegal, the prison doors were flung open, and I returned, a walking skeleton, to my family.

Nelson Mandela showed us that prison can strengthen a man. After my release, I gathered the stories of 792 other Chadian prisoners and took them to Senegal. Ten years ago this week, based in part on my evidence, a judge in Senegal charged Mr. Habré with torture and crimes against humanity. Sadly the Senegalese government has not yet brought the case to trial.

Still, I wonder, on the day Mr. Habré was indicted, did he ask himself, “Who is that nobody who is coming after me — me, a man who destroyed entire tribes, entire villages?”

Souleymane Guengueng spent 27 months in a Chadian prison and now lives in New York City.

source: New York Times, Feb. 6, 2010

Bring Hissene Habre & his accomplices to Justice !

No to Impunity ! Tribute to Habre’s victims !

Bring Hissene Habre to Justice – 2

Bring Hissene Habre to Justice !!! – 1

Chad’s Habre Said to Know of Prison Deaths

Former Chadian President Hissène Habré (file), Photo: AFP

A new study shows that former Chadian President Hissene Habre knew about hundreds of deaths in prisons operated by his political police.

Mr. Habre has been under house arrest in Senegal since 2000.  He fled to Senegal after being deposed in 1990 and has since been accused of thousands of political killings and cases of torture during his eight years in power.

An international coalition of human-rights organizations has announced a new study of abandoned files from the state security force that operated prisons under President Habre shows he was well-informed of its actions.

Demba Cire Bathily, a Dakar-based lawyer for the victims, says these findings could be critical for the case against Mr. Habre.

He says this study looked at 2,700 administrative reports and established a direct link between Hissene Habre and the state security force, responsible for acts of torture.  He says the evidence shows Mr. Habre was aware of what was going on and received reports of deaths.

More than 12,000 victims are mentioned in the documents, including 1,208 who died in detention.  Analysts also say the study confirms reports of deplorable conditions in the prisons.

Under international law, individuals can be found criminally responsible for human-rights violations, if they knew or should have known that forces under their control were committing crimes and failed to act to prevent them or punish those responsible.

In 2006, the African Union called for Senegal to try Mr. Habre on behalf of Africa.  Since then, Senegal has adopted laws that would allow it to do so, but the case is at a standstill.

Senegal has said it wants all $38 million of a trial’s proposed three-year budget up front, a demand the international community is reluctant to agree to, especially because Senegal has not offered a clear plan on how it will conduct the trial.

Wednesday marks the 10-year anniversary of the first Habre’s indictment in Senegal.  In those 10 years, many of the the victims have died.  And, human-rights advocates worry that Senegal does not have the political will to try him.

Bathily says Habre’s victims have also become victims of time and Senegal’s inertia.

He says those victims who have already died will never receive justice.  It is a deplorable situation, he says, that is made even worse by the fact that Senegal has all the judicial measures in place to prosecute someone for these serious crimes but still does nothing.  He says Chad’s former president is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of torture, but he walks free and Senegal says it will not judge him until it receives the money.

In October 2008, Mr. Habre filed a complaint with the court of the Economic Community of West African States to block his trial for crimes against humanity in Senegal, citing violations of his rights.  The ECOWAS court ruled in November 2009 that victims may not take part in those proceedings, but has not yet determined whether it has jurisdiction to hear the Habre case.

European Union and African Union representatives visited Senegal in December, 2009 and are expected to propose a revised budget for bringing Mr. Habre to trial in Senegal.

Human-rights advocates have called on the African Union to take this week’s AU summit in Ethiopia as a chance to prod Senegal to move forward.

source: voanews.com

AU picks Zimbabwe for Peace and Security Council

By Duncan Miriri

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The African Union (AU) has selected Zimbabwe for a place on its Peace and Security Council, one of the bloc’s most powerful organs, the organisation’s head of legal affairs said.

The southern African country is emerging from a period of international isolation after a power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Peace and Security Council is concerned with resolving conflicts between member states and with helping sort out domestic political turmoil. Other states picked late on Saturday for three year terms on the body were Kenya, Burundi and Equatorial Guinea.

Ben Kioko, the AU legal counsel said the trial of former Chadian ruler Hissene Habre would commence in the next few months, once the AU and the European Union have sorted out a trial budget and issues of procedure.

Habre, president between 1982 and 1990, faces charges of crimes against humanity.

The EU became involved in the issue after Belgium issued an international arrest warrant for Habre in 2005.

Belgium’s move to try him in Europe was rejected by the AU and the trial will take place in Senegal where Habre is exiled.

“It is an issue (budget) that we should be able to finalise within the next two weeks,” he said.

A detailed plan to merge the African Court of Human and People’s Rights with the African Court of Justice, and to mandate the new entity to handle serious offences like war crimes, would be presented at the next summit of AU leaders in July, Kioko also said.

“The African judicial organs should be able to deal with cases relating to unconstitutional changes of government so that is also another axis we will be looking to confer jurisdiction upon the African court.”.

Dakar challenges regional court’s power to try Habre: official

LAGOS — Senegal Thursday challenged the competence of west Africa’s regional court to hear Chad’s former president Hissene Habre’s suit against Dakar’s efforts to try him for alleged rights violations, a court spokesman said.

At the court session in Abuja, Dakar government lawyers filed an objection against the hearing of Habre’s suit, arguing that their country, a sovereign state, was at liberty to make its laws, amend them and try offenders, Felicien Hounkarin told AFP.

They confirmed that they amended their laws, including those dealing with torture, to allow them to conform with UN international conventions and in order to enable Dakar to try cases of rights violations and torture, he said.

Habre’s lawyers argued that Senegal’s decision to amend its laws specifically targeted Habre and that his rights could be violated if he was tried in the west African country, he also said.

They urged the court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to stop Habre’s trial in Senegal, he added.

“If he is tried in Senegal, he will be the sole person to be so treated and this trial will amount to selective justice. He is not going to get justice and a fair hearing in Senegal,” Habre’s leading lawyer, Francois Serres, told AFP by telephone from Abuja.

“Even now, a lot of rights violations are going on in Senegal in Dakar’s preparation of this case. We are worried that he might be indicted if tried in Senegal,” Serres said.

Habre, accused of “crimes against humanity” which Senegal is charged with the responsibility of trying, has alleged the violation of some of his rights by Dakar. He has lived in exile in the Senegalese capital since 1990.

Habre has been blamed for killing and torturing thousands during his 1982-90 rule when he was toppled and fled.

An official truth commission report in 1992 accused Habre’s regime of committing some 40,000 political murders.

Habre’s lawyers in October filed a suit in Senegal against the violation of his rights under various articles of the African Charter on Human Rights.

Awa Daboya Nana, president of the ECOWAS court, adjourned until March 17 his ruling on whether or not the tribunal was competent to hear Habre’s suit, Serres said.

The court on November 17 rejected attempts by victims of Habre to take part in the rights violation suit the ex-dictator filed against Senegal.

The request of the victims was represented by the global rights lobby, Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The judge had said the “application for intervention is inadmissible” because the interveners had already “initiated many proceedings before jurisdictions that can offer the protection of their rights”.HRW lawyer Clement Nwankwo said that the victims wanted to be part of the suit because it “seems to exclude a review of the case of extradition and other trials that are pending outside of the jurisdiction of ECOWAS court”.

source: AFP

CEDEAO : Les victimes présumées d’Hissène Habré déboutés

La Cour de justice de la CEDEAO, qui examine une plainte déposée contre le Sénégal par l’ancien président tchadien Hissène Habré, a rejeté, mardi à Abuja, une demande des victimes présumées d’Habré d’être partie prenante au procès.

La Cour a estimé que la demande n’était pas « admissible », car les demandeurs, représentés par Human Rights Watch (HRW), « ont déjà initié plusieurs procédures devant des juridictions où elles peuvent défendre leurs droits ».

Hissène Habré, qui réside au Sénégal depuis 1990, est accusé de crimes contre l’humanité.

Il poursuit le Sénégal, chargé de le juger, de « violation de l’autorité de la chose jugée » et « violation de la non-rétroactivité de la loi pénale » selon son avocat, François Serres.

Court unable to hear Habre trial

Former Chadian dictator, Hissene Habre (file)

Arusha, Tanzania -The African human rights court, in its first ever case on Tuesday, ruled itself incompetent to decide whether charges against Chad’s former president Hissene Habre should be dropped.

The Tanzania-based African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights was hearing a petition lodged in 2008 by a Chadian national, Michelot Yogogombaye, seeking to have Habre’s planned trial in Senegal quashed.

The African Union, which established the court in 2006, had in the same year called for Habre’s case to be heard in Senegal, where he has been exiled since his toppling in 1990.

The former Chadian dictator is facing crimes against humanity charges stemming from accusations of killing and torturing tens of thousands during his rule between 1982 and 1990.

“The court unanimously declares that it is incompetent to decide on the petition by Mr Yogogombaye against Senegal,” read a ruling.

It added that Senegal had not made any official communication acknowledging the court’s competence to hear petitions filed directly by individuals or non-governmental groups.

Yogogombaye had asked the judges to “take note, in the current case made for the inculpation and judgement of Hissein Habre, of the political character, the financial motive and the abusive use of the principle of universal jurisdiction.”

Yogogombaye, who lives in Switzerland and who was absent during Tuesday’s ruling, had suggested a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission to deal with crimes committed in Chad between 1962 and 2008.

- AFP

source: News24.com