confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
On trial
Blue Lines
After two decades of obstruction,
the trial of Chad’s ex-President,
Hissène Habré, for crimes against
humanity got under way this
week in Dakar. The Special Court,
jointly set up by the government
of Senegal and the African Union,
offers another forum for the
prosecution of leaders accused
of atrocities. It comes as several
AU leaders, including South
Africa’s Jacob Zuma, criticise the
International Criminal Court for
‘targeting Africa’.
In fact, setting up Special Courts
and working in parallel with African
justice systems is well within the
remit of the ICC, which was meant
to reinforce, not replace them.
Some argue that the ICC should
set up an adjunct or Special Court
in South Africa or another state
with a credible judiciary.
Without the matchless
determination of Chadian lawyer
Jacqueline Moudeina, herself
a victim of a grenade attack in
2001, the trial might never have
happened. Habré used his close
relations with Cold War leaders
such as Ronald Reagan and
François Mitterrand in the 1980s
to give him cover to obliterate his
guerrilla opponents and civilian
allies. It helped that some of them
were backed by Reagan’s arch
enemy Colonel Gadaffi.
Chad’s current President, Idris
Déby Itno, came to power by
overthrowing Habré with backing
from Sudan. But until he seized
power, Déby was Habré’s head of
military intelligence and a key part
of his security apparatus. Habré’s
defence team must be tempted to
call Déby as a witness, if only to
embarrass him.
