Not ‘a white man’s justice’
DAKAR/THE HAGUE: With many Africans denouncing the International Criminal Court as “white man’s justice”, the trial of Chad’s former dictator in Senegal on charges of crimes against humanity offers the continent a chance to show it can hold its leaders to account.
The start of the trial of Hissene Habre yesterday concludes a 15-year battle by victims and rights campaigners to bring the former strongman to justice in Senegal, where he fled after being toppled in a 1990 coup.
Habre, backed by Washington as a bulwark against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi in the 1980s, is blamed by rights groups for widespread torture and the killing of up to 40 000 people during the eight years he ruled his impoverished central African nation.
Though African presidents have been tried in their own countries for crimes committed in office, Habre’s trial marks the first time that a court in one country has prosecuted the former ruler of another on rights charges, according to Human Rights Watch.
It comes a month after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s escape from an international arrest warrant in South Africa marked a new low in relations between Africa and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The ICC was embraced by many African governments when it was set up in 2002, but attitudes towards the largely European-funded court have cooled after it has indicted only Africans, prompting many to label it a Western neocolonial institution.
“This is a chance to show that an African court can deliver justice for African victims for crimes committed in Africa,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who has pursued the Habre case since 1999.
“It’s one thing to complain about having abusive African presidents sent to The Hague. It’s another thing to show that they can be prosecuted and get a fair trial here in Africa.”
The proceedings, due to last around 3 months, will be heard by a Special African Chamber (CAE) created in 2013 by Senegal and the African Union.
The case turns on whether Habre, feted at the White House in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan after expelling Libyan forces from Chad, ordered the large-scale assassination and torture of political opponents and ethnic rivals.
A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission accused Habré’s government of up to 40 000 political murders and systematic torture, mostly by his feared intelligence police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).
Habre and his lawyers intend to boycott the trial, saying there has been no due process. They say the 72-yearold has a heart condition, though the court could still oblige him to attend.
“In this affair, from the outset, it has been Hissene Habre is guilty and let’s find evidence that justifies this,” said his lawyer Ibrahima Diawara.
“None of the victims, if we are calling them that, ever saw Habre. Never ever met him.”
HRW says its investigation in 2001 unearthed thousands of documents in the abandoned DDS headquarters updating Habre on the status of detainees. A court handwriting expert confirmed notes on one document to be Habre’s.
Whereas the Bashir case was presented to the ICC by the UN Security Council, Habre’s prosecution is built on campaigning by thousands of victims and Chadian lawyer Jaqueline Moudeina, who faced repeated threats.
A successful trial of Habre, conducted to high standards and leading to a credible verdict, would strengthen African countries’ case that they are best placed to try their own.
“The perception of white man’s justice must cease,” Senegal’s Justice Minister Sidiki Kaba said.