RIGHTS: Torture Victims Challenge Impunity Enjoyed by Former Dictators

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, May 27 2001 (IPS) - Since February last year, Senegal has been ground zero for a public campaign seeking to end the impunity enjoyed by a perpetrator of alleged human rights violations.

Leading the campaign in that West African nation is a group of former torture victims from Chad, who want Hissen Habre, the former president of Chad, to face charges of torture and brutality committed during his eight year rule.

Early in this campaign the victims did secure a legal victory against Habre, who has been living the life of a free man in Senegal since he was ousted in 1990. He was indicted on torture charges and subsequently placed under house arrest.

But appeals by Habre’s lawyers succeeded in stalling such efforts, including receiving legal rulings in Habre’s favour. The most recent was last month, when Senegal’s highest court declared that Habre could not be tried because his crimes were not committed in Senegal.

For leading human rights organisations, however, such set backs have not deterred the victims, given the significant mileage they have achieved since initiating their quest for justice.

What is more, human rights advocates from Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have singled out this demonstration of “people’s power” as sending out a powerful message to former “dictators” and “tyrants” living in exile – that the impunity they enjoy can be broken.

“They are critical in breaking the cycle of impunity that has plagued Africa,” says Reed Brody, advocacy director of the New York City-based HRW. “The Habre case has been both a ‘wake-up call’ to tyrants everywhere, and has given hope to other victims that they can bring their tormentors to justice.”

According to Sarah Milburn, of AI’s US section, the case against Habre is being watched as a test for future efforts. The process has ensured that “the victims of human rights abuses are not forgotten, and builds the groundwork for preventing future abuses from taking place in the dark and with impunity”.

Adds Ngande Mwanjiti, executive director of the Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development (or Afronet), the pressure exerted by the victims has had an impact, reflecting that “people’s power is working – there is no doubt about that”.

For these advocates, what is equally encouraging is an emerging global trend that mirrors the same passion for justice as the Chadian victims. Evidence of such a movement has surfaced in countries across Latin America, North America, Europe and Africa.

In Mexico, for instance, those asserting public pressure for justice include Argentineans who fled their country as a result of that South American nation’s “Dirty War” during the 1970s.

They have mounted a campaign against Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, a former military official from Argentina who has been implicated by a Spanish judge for his involvement in “genocide, terrorism and torture” during the “Dirty War”. Cavallo was arrested in Cancun, a resort city on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, last August. Until then, he had been living and working in this country, and was the director of Mexico’s national registry of motor vehicles.

In the United States, a neighbourhood in New York City is the venue for regular public demonstrations against Emmanuel “Tonto” Constant, the president of a Haitian paramilitary group, who has been accused of committing human rights violations in Haiti.

“He now lives in Queens, New York. There are frequent demonstrations against him,” says Brody.

According to HRW, this international effort to go after former dictators and perpetrators of human rights violations received a boost when Augusto Pinochet, the former ruler of Chile, was arrested during a visit to London in October 1998.

At the time, the British courts, which acted on an arrest warrant brought against Pinochet by a Spanish judge, declared that the former Chilean dictator was not entitled to immunity and that he could be extradited to Spain to stand trial for human rights crimes committed during his 17-year rule.

“The Pinochet case reaffirmed the principles that a country can judge the crime of torture no matter where the acts were committed, and that not even a former head of state has immunity from prosecution,” remarked HRW soon after.

And what made the “Pinochet Precedent” possible was the United Nations Convention against Torture, says Milburn. That 1984 convention, which has been ratified by over 120 states, classifies torture as a crime that can be prosecuted in any country.

Furthermore, the “Pinochet Precedent” also underscored the existing principle of “universal jurisdiction” over human rights atrocities. Such a principle under international law affirms that perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes can be held accountable for their actions and tried in a court of law in any country.

Nevertheless, as Milburn points out, many governments are reluctant to support “the outlet for prosecution of serious human rights abuses”.

The ones who have benefited as a result are former dictators and human rights violators living in exile. And this list of men enjoying impunity since their exit from power include Idi Amin, Milton Obote, Alfredo Stroessner and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.

“Each case is a bit different,” adds Milburn. “France offered a home in exile to Bokassa (of the Central African Republic) for a number of complex political motives having to do with its history in that country.”

Despite such a reality, HRW feels that the current climate of impunity is not supported across the planet. In its “World Report 2001”, it drew attention to another development that reflected such a pattern – the growing support to establish the International Criminal Court, which will have the power to prosecute crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes if national courts fail to hear such cases.

“These developments represented a growing commitment to end impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” it declared.

For human rights activists, there is still more work to be done for international law to finally catch up with the world’s most notorious dictators living as free men.

In that context, they add, the current demonstration of public pressure for justice matters. In Africa, says Mwanajiti, the torture victims from Chad have already given the lead, influencing that continent’s “human rights discourse”.