By Alistair Thomson and Diadie Ba

Dakar - People who say they were tortured under former Chadian President Hissene Habre's rule on Tuesday welcomed the African Union's decision to have him tried in Senegal, but were uneasy over possible delays.

African Union heads of state agreed at a weekend summit in neighbouring Gambia that Habre should be prosecuted in Senegal rather than extradited to Belgium, where he has been indicted.

A Chadian government inquiry accused Habre's government of 40 000 political killings and 200 000 cases of torture during his 1982-1990 rule. Habre denies all knowledge of abuse and his lawyers say the inquiry was politically motivated.
 

Senegal, where Habre has lived since his overthrow, has previously said it can not try him, and will likely have to alter its legal provisions to incorporate elements of the international convention against torture in order to do so now.

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said at the weekend he would ask parliament to change the law to permit the trial.

"This is a very important step forward in the promotion of human rights," Ismail Hachim Abdallah, president of Chad's Association of Victims of Political Crimes and Repression, told a news conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar, where Habre lives in an upmarket suburb.

But he said he was concerned there may be delays enacting new legislation to allow Habre's prosecution.

"Given our previous experience of Senegal, we are very sceptical," Abdallah said.

Jacqueline Moudeina, a human rights campaigner and lawyer for alleged torture victims who have tried to bring a case against Habre in Chad itself, said she was also worried about potential problems bringing Habre to trial in Senegal.

Two plaintiffs in a legal suit brought against Habre in Senegal in 2000, which eventually led to the African Union ruling on the case, have already died.

"Nowhere is any mention made of any time frame being given to Senegal," Moudeina said. "Given all that has happened since 2000, we are worried about the fairness of the Senegalese judiciary in this case."

However, despite campaigners' reservations, the African Union ruling was a major step forward for their efforts to bring Habre to trial, said Reed Brody of US-based Human Rights Watch, who helped bring the case against Habre in Senegal.

"It is no small thing for an assembly including people like (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi, (Zimbabwe's) Robert Mugabe and (Sudan's) Omar Hassan al-Bashir to ask Senegal to prosecute one of their former colleagues, a former head of state who had taken part in the same meetings and now by Africa's unanimous voice is being handed over to the law in Senegal," Brody said.

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-07-04 16:20:28