Friday, July 25, 2008
Senegal may be enthusiastic about putting on trial Chadian despot, Hissene Habre. It may have one of the best laws for prosecuting atrocities, but would such a trial be fair after shielding Habre for close to two decades? Senegal says it wants the international community to financially support the trial. But why not hand over Habre, whose regime is responsible for some 40,000 politically motivated murders and 200,000 cases of torture to the International Criminal Court in the Hague? After all, Congolese rebel leader Jean- Pierre Bemba and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor are facing trial at the International Criminal Court and hopefully Sudan’s Al- Bashir.