DATE=2/23/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=HABRE / DICTATORS.
NUMBER=5-45497
BYLINE=HILLETEWORK MATHIAS
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Earlier this month, a court in Senegal charged
the exiled former president of Chad -- Hissene Habre -
- with torture and other human-rights abuses. The ex-
dictator fled to Senegal in 1990 when current
president Idriss Deby overthrew him. It is the first
time a former African leader has been accused of such
charges in another country. V-O-A's Hilletework
Mathias reports the indictment is seen as a warning to
authoritarian leaders that they can no longer be sure
of a peaceful retirement.
TEXT: Senegal's action opens a new chapter in the
evolution of international criminal law. The case
against Mr. Habre grew out of complaints filed by
human-rights groups on behalf of tens-of-thousands of
people they say were tortured or killed during his
regime.
Senegal is among the countries that ratified the 1998
Rome treaty on establishment of an international
criminal court. Its decision to indict Mr. Habre came
at the same time British courts consider whether
former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet should be
extradited to Spain for trial on human-rights charges.
Reed Brody is advocacy director of Human Rights Watch
-- the New York-based watchdog group that helped
organize Mr. Habre's indictment. He says the case of
the ex-Chadian leader sends an important message to
dictators throughout the world.
// BRODY ACT //
This is a wake-up call to present and future
leaders in Africa, and elsewhere, that if they
commit crimes against humanity they can also be
brought to justice. Yesterday, it was Augusto
Pinochet, today it is Hissene Habre and tomorrow
if you commit these kinds of atrocities you can
be brought to justice, may be not in your
country but somewhere, some day. There are
still places in this world where you can hide.
But if you can hide, you may not be able to run.
// END OF ACT //
Senegal's indictment of Mr. Habre is especially
important because it calls for an African dictator to
be tried in Africa. The continent's tyrants have
rarely been brought to justice for human-rights
abuses.
From Ethiopia's Mengsitu Hailemariam to Uganda's Idi
Amin, many of Africa's fallen dictators have often
managed to escape justice and live in luxury in exile.
Colonel Mengistu's Marxist Red Terror claimed
countless victims before he was ousted in 1991. He is
in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe protects
him out of gratitude for arms the colonel supplied
during Zimbabwe's independence struggle.
Recent attempts by Ethiopia to extradite the ex-
Ethiopian ruler from South Africa, where he was on a
medical visit, failed. He is wanted in his country on
charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, General Amin -- who once listed Hitler as a
role model -- has been the guest of Saudi Arabia in
the city of Jeddah since 1980. Hundreds-of-thousands
of people were killed during his rule in the 1970's,
many were the victims of the murderous mood of a man
who once called himself - Conqueror of the British
Empire. He reportedly told Ugandan journalists three-
years ago that - I am not doing badly at all.
An exception to the trend is the Central African
Republic's former president - the late Jean-Bedel
Bokassa - a long-time French protege who proclaimed
himself emperor in a lavish 1977 ceremony. He spent
years in exile before returning to his country to face
trial in 1986. He was convicted of murder and
sentenced to death, but later pardoned. He died in
1996.
But for the most part, African despots and their
henchmen evade justice. Observers say tyrants got
away with crimes because of the failure of their
successors, who often prefer to consolidate their
power rather than trying to bring the ex-dictators to
trial. They say such decisions are often rooted in a
profound fear that putting the former tyrants on trial
could provoke a backlash from their supporters.
Mr. Brody agrees, but also says those who shelter
despots have failed to meet their international
responsibilities.
// BRODY ACT //
I think there are many countries that have not
yet taken their international obligations
seriously. It is often going to seem also more
convenient to let this dictator or that dictator
off the hook in order to promote national
reconciliation. But I feel that if no one is
ever prosecuted for these crimes, the law will
be no deterrence. It is often said if you kill
one person you go to jail, but history shows
that if you kill tens-of-thousands of people you
end up with an amnesty or you go to your bank in
Switzerland. This has to stop if we are going
to put an end to these kinds of atrocities.
// END OF ACT //
In the case of Chad, President Deby has never asked
for Mr. Habre's extradition, although he accused his
predecessor's regime of responsibility for 40-thousand
murders and 200-thousand cases of torture. Mr. Brody
says this is because President Deby -- who was once
Mr. Habre's army chief of staff -- is concerned about
his own role under the Habre regime.
// BRODY ACT //
People in the current government in Chad --
including President Idriss Deby himself - were
involved in crimes that Hissene Habre alleged to
have committed. So, perhaps they do not want to
stir the pot too much.
// END OF OPT //
Some former African dictators escape trial as a matter
of political expediency. In 1991, the United States
encouraged Zimbabwe to take Mengistu to avoid what
Washington called further bloodshed in Ethiopia, where
rebels had taken over.
Washington also supported Mr. Habre against a Libyan-
backed rival during the Chadian civil war in 1980's,
despite his poor human-rights record. The United
States saw the ex-ruler of Chad as a buffer against
Libyan leader colonel Muammar Gaddafi, whom U-S
officials accuse of supporting international
terrorism.
The indictment of Mr. Habre may have been inspired by
a number of factors, the legal battle in Britain for
the extradition of General Pinochet one of them. The
trial of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda and the arrests of indicted war criminal in
Bosnia may have also contributed to Mr. Habre's case.
Whatever the factors, Senegal's move against Mr. Habre
shows that Africa is beginning to take the alleged
crimes of its leaders seriously. It also means
survivors of human-rights abuses can take heart that
these acts are no longer the norm on the continent.
Many people believe no one has suffered more dearly
than Africans from the absence of the rule of law,
making the indictment of Hissene Habre more
significant. (SIGNED)
NEB/HM/RAE
23-Feb-2000 09:25 AM EDT (23-Feb-2000 1425 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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