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From:  Gambia Talk <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject:  FW: Dictator-hunter homes in on "Africa's Pinochet"
Date:  Mon, 3 Oct 2005 12:39:02 -0400
>Dictator-hunter homes in on "Africa's Pinochet"
>Mon Oct 3, 2005 10:32 AM ET
>
>
>
>By Pascal Fletcher
>
>DAKAR (Reuters) - A U.S. human rights lawyer who campaigns to bring
>ex-dictators accused of atrocities to justice has set his sights on
>snaring a former U.S.-backed ruler of Chad he calls "Africa's Pinochet".
>
>Reed Brody, special counsel for prosecutions for U.S.-based Human Rights
>Watch, arrived in Senegal this weekend on a mission to persuade its
>government to grant Belgium's request for the extradition of Hissene
>Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990.
>
>A Brussels magistrate last month issued an international arrest warrant
>for Habre, now 63, who has lived in exile in Senegal for the last 15
>years. The Belgian warrant holds Habre responsible for mass murder and
>torture carried out by his political police during his rule in Chad.
>
>Brody, who was also involved in trying to obtain the extradition to Spain
>of Augusto Pinochet during the former Chilean dictator's temporary arrest
>in Britain in 1998, has been tracking Habre for several years.
>
>He believes the Belgian extradition move may finally bring the former
>Chadian president to prosecution.
>
>"We have the law on our side, Belgian law, Senegalese extradition law, all
>provide that he can be extradited to Belgium," Brody said in an interview
>Sunday.
>
>"We hope that through this case we can also break that cycle in which
>African rulers brutalize their people, pillage the treasury and then just
>go to some other country and live in a seaside villa," he told Reuters.
>
>Brody recalled former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who died in exile in
>Saudi Arabia in 2003, and former Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko, who
>died in Morocco in 1997. Both faced accusations of human rights abuses
>that went unpunished.
>
>In 2000, a Senegalese court charged Habre with torture and crimes against
>humanity but later ruled he could not be tried there.
>
>"Having failed to prosecute him, it's now Senegal's legal international
>obligation to extradite him to a country where he can be tried," said
>Brody, who plans to meet Senegalese officials over the next week.
>
>On Monday, Senegal's Foreign Affairs Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio said it
>was up to the country's justice system to give its independent opinion on
>the extradition request.
>
>He told foreign journalists his government had no preconceptions but
>added: "It is a very sensitive issue."
>
>UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION
>
>Brussels magistrate Daniel Fransen issued the September 19 arrest warrant
>for Habre under the country's universal jurisdiction law which allows
>Belgian judges to prosecute human rights violations no matter where these
>were committed.
>
>The law was watered down in 2003 but this case was allowed because at
>least one of the plaintiffs is a Belgian citizen.
>
>Habre's lawyer has in the past said that the former president denied the
>accusations against him.
>
>Brody, who says he unearthed abandoned political police files in Chad in
>2001 detailing the deaths in detention of 1,208 individuals, plans to
>bring to Senegal Chadians who suffered torture under Habre's rule.
>
>"It's not going to be easy ... Hissene Habre is alleged to have stolen
>millions of dollars from the Chadian treasury and he has used that money
>and continues to use that money to buy influence and protection within
>Senegalese society," Brody said.
>
>But he added Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had said on several
>occasions he was willing to extradite Habre.
>
>He justified the comparison of Habre with Pinochet by saying that, apart
>from the human rights cases against both of them, the Chadian ruler
>emulated his Latin American counterpart by also coming to power with U.S.
>support.
>
>"Hissene Habre was put into power by the United States, his regime was
>backed to the very end by the U.S.," Brody said.
>
>He says the administration of then U.S. President Ronald Reagan backed
>Habre as a bulwark against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was viewed
>by Washington as a threat.
>
>(additional reporting by Diadie Ba)
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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