I strongly feel that African leaders should be juged by Africans, not by former white slave masters who have never apologized for the harm their did to Africa. Belgium should jail its own citizen first, those who in this country have condoned or executed orders to kill Patrice Lumumba in Congo in the 1960s.

The Congo war has taken millions of lives and everybody knows the King of Belgim was behind that war.

Can you give us the background of this story?

I have mixed feelings about this issue.

Belgium has taken as Pontius Pilatus attitude concerning the murder of Patrice Lumumba. They propped up a regime in Katanga under Moise Tschombe, that was basically controlled by Union Minère. While the CIA supported Kasa-Vubu and played him out against Lumumba with their trump card Mobutu in their sleeves, they could undermine Lumumba and eventually capture him. He was sent to Katanga knowing very well that this would mean his assassination

All Belgian puppet players remained protected, as they were not doing any dirty work themselves. The plot to assassinate Lumumba was know up to the highest levels of the Belgian government, including the then prime minister Gaston Eyskens. Even though there was an official apologyby the Belgian government in 2002, this was clearly another case of too little too late

Even now there are countless apologists in Belgium that defend both the wicked Congo Free State of Leopold II and the colonisation by Belgium that followed. At independence Congo only counted one university graduate. The charismatic personality of Lumumba could have pulled of the feat of creating one nation. He was surely succeeding in bringing together the different nationalities in Congo. His biggest obstacle was that he, as an African nationalist, was seen by the US as another communist (which he was not). Belgium was more realistic in this matter, but they propped up the idea to ensure US support in weakening the Congolse state and thus keeping economic control over the ex-colony.

Currently, Belgium no longer has any meaningful economic interests in Congo and that is probably why they feel that now they can support the democratisation process. Once again a case of too little, too late.

Concerning the trials under the so-called Belgian genocide law, it is indeed hypocritical that a country with such a tainted history should be the one persecuting these war criminals, but honestly, I see no real alternative? The US is undermining the international criminal court in the Hague and you cannot expect the OAU to do this, can you? Maybe South Africa should take on this role, but they too are reluctant to attack former friends, such as Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

I really don't know what the best solution would be. Someone like Hissen Habré should certainly not be allowed to escape justice.

Hissen Habre, the former president of Chad, was on Tuesday arrested in Senegal where he has been living for the past 15 years and may face possible extradition to Belgium.
click for rest of story
http://www.observer.gm/enews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2499&Itemid=33

I think he should be sent back to Chad to face 'justice', whatever happens to him there, so be it.

ijebuman:

I think he should be sent back to Chad to face 'justice', whatever happens to him there, so be it.

I'm not really on top of Chadian politics. Is there any chance he'd be prosecuted in Chad? If not could another African Country try him? If so, I'm all for it.

In view of the current Belgian genocide law, I do not see how this could ever result in a trial. Only if the perpetrator is living in Belgium or if a Belgian citizen is directly involved in the crime (either as perpetrator or victim) can they invoke the so called genocide law.

It has worked once for the trial of some Rwandan priests and nuns that were perpetrators in the Rwandan genocide. Then it made sense as the perpetrators had Belgian residence permits and Arusha was incapable of handling the case. Such a trial is no longer possible under the current law.

The only exception is when the country in question (Chad) would make a direct request to Belgium to prosecute one of it's citizens (e.g. because their justice system is not capable of handling such a case).
Did Chad make such a request to Belgium?

Just outrageous.
The day  the UN  will ask for the arrest of  europeans presidents and kings  based on their crimes in africa is yet to come.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4999106.stm

In the early 1980s   Habre' was the "strongman" for the US and  France who were seeing him as the one who could resist Gaddafi. At that time the lybian leader  was trying hard to keep control on the  Aouzou( read  ha- hoo-zu)  strip, a  rich region of chad. Once Gaddafi's troops were thrown out of chad (1987)  Paris wanted  to  have an upper hand on  oil business in that country. Habre refused and a new civil war broke up with Idriss Deby , a former army chief of staff under habre' being the new rebel leader. Since Deby took over Habre' is seen as a threat . Today  the new ruler of  chad   has  a shaky future  after  his refusal to step aside at the end of his 2nd term   in disregard of the constitution. Deby  was recently  "reelected "  for a 3rd term.    

What about Belgium?

<<Between 1993 and 2003, Belgium had universal jurisdiction legislation allowing the most serious violations of human rights to be tried in national as well as international courts, without any direct connection to the country of the alleged perpetrator, victims or where the crimes took place. Despite the repeal of the legislation, investigations against Habré went ahead and in September 2005 he was indicted for crimes against humanity, torture, war crimes and other human rights violations. Senegal, has Habré under virtual house arrest in Dakar.([2]) On March 17 the European Parliament demanded that Senegal turn over Habré to Belgium to be tried. Senegal is not expected to comply, as it already refused extradition demands from the African Union.  >>
source wikipedia.

Comments:    Can a thug be  a juge ?   If Habre' is turned over to  a former slave master, he won't be the last. Any african president can be accused of anything and be jailed in europe while eurpeans are doing dirty things in africa without paying the price.

panafrican:




Comments: Can a thug be a juge ? If Habre' is turned over to a former slave master, he won't be the last. Any african president can be accused of anything and be jailed in europe while eurpeans are doing dirty things in africa without paying the price.

I would like to believe that the slave masters are all dead, so we can’t send them to the Hague or Arusha, but as long as I knew, Habre is still alive and kicking. While they are at it, I will show them way to otta to arrest Obasanjo and his friends like Danjuma for their war crimes inside Biafra before they die off like the slave masters.

I would like to believe that the slave masters are all dead, so we can’t send them to the Hague or Arusha, but as long as I knew, Habre is still alive and kicking. While they are at it, I will show them way to otta to arrest Obasanjo and his friends like Danjuma for their war crimes inside Biafra before they die off like the slave masters.