Habre ordered to leave

President Abdoulaye Wade has asked Chad’s exiled former president, Hissene Habre, to leave the country within 30 days, media organisations reported. The decision, announced by Wade on the privately-owned radio station ‘Sud-FM’, comes less than a month after Senegal’s highest appeal court, La Cour de Cassation, ruled that local courts could not try Habre for acts committed outside Senegal. Habre, who became president in 1982, has been living in the capital, Dakar, since 1990, when he was overthrown by a military coup. In February 2000, he was placed under house arrest after a Senegalese judge indicted him of torture and other abuses perpetrated during his reign. The case was filed by a coalition of torture victims and human rights organisations. Rights advocates had viewed last month’s decision as a setback and described it as a violation of the international convention against torture, which Senegal has signed. Saturday’s decision is a partial victory, a human rights advocate told IRIN, since the sole aim is to have Habre punished for his crimes. Another lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs is pending before a Belgian court.