A welcome development if Dakar lets the judicial process take its course.

Cheers,
         Madiba.
----------------

BBC NEWS
Wednesday, 26 January, 2000, 00:13 GMT
Habre charged with rights abuses

By Mark Doyle in Abidjan
Victims of alleged human rights abuses in Africa have for the first time
filed criminal charges against a former dictator in another African country.

The case - which has direct parallels with the Pinochet affair - has been
filed in the West African state of Senegal by torture victims of the former
dictator of Chad, Hissene Habre.

He currently resides in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Brutal regime

Hissene Habre ran a notoriously brutal regime, during which there were
allegations of thousands of political murders.



The attempt to prosecute a former dictator is bound to become deeply
politicised


The victims who have filed criminal charges against the former Chadian
dictator are, like the Chileans who want to see Augusto Pinochet prosecuted,
just a small sample of those who have suffered human rights abuses.
There are other parallels as well.

Hissene Habre ruled the Sahara Desert state with the backing of the United
States, which at the time saw him as a counterbalance to Colonel Gadaffi of
Libya, Chad's northern neighbour.

Some of those who suffered under Hissene Habre's rule, including torture
victims and family members of the disappeared, have now asked the
authorities in Senegal to arrest and try him on criminal charges.

Political mileage

The victims' lawyers said they had received assurances from the Senegalese
Government that the courts there would be allowed to act independently.

However, as with the Pinochet case in the UK, the attempt to prosecute a
former dictator is bound to become deeply politicised.

Political tension is high in Senegal ahead of presidential elections due
next month, and the lively opposition there is bound to exploit this case if
it sees any possible advantage in doing so.

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