Belgium / Senegal
THE HAGUE, Netherland, May 28, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Daily press briefing by the office of the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general.
Just to flag for you, tomorrow in The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue an order in response to a filing by Belgium questioning Senegal’s compliance with its obligation to prosecute Hissène Habré.
Habré, a former President of Chad, has been accused in a Senegalese court of massive human rights abuses committed by his regime during the 1990s.
[ Belgium contends that negotiations between the two States "have continued unsuccessfully since 2005" and that it reached the conclusion that they had failed on 20 June 2006. Belgium states, moreover, that it suggested recourse to arbitration to Senegal on 20 June 2006 and notes that the latter "failed to respond to that request […] whereas Belgium has persistently confirmed in Notes Verbales that a dispute on this subject continues to exist”.]
Belgium filed the complaint to the ICJ in February, seeking among other things to have Habré extradited to Belgium to face criminal charges should Senegal be found unable or unwilling to do so. For its part, Senegal has asked the Court to dismiss the Belgian filing, saying its judiciary is competent to carry out the prosecution.
SOURCE
United Nations – Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General
