Rights body files torture complaint against general

A French-based rights body, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, has named a Congolese general living in France in a judicial complaint accusing him of inflicting torture three years ago in the capital of the Republic of Congo, Brazzaville, AFP reported Thursday, quoting unnamed legal sources. AFP said the complaint filed by the federation on 5 December 2001, accused army Inspector-General Norbert Dabira of torturing Congolese civilians before they disappeared in 1999. "The procedure also names Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, his interior minister, Pierre Oba, and the commander of the presidential guard, Blaise Adoua," AFP reported. A court in Meaux, near Paris, where Dabira has a home, is hearing the suit. The torture accusation refers back to a specific event in 1999 when hundreds of refugees returned to the Republic of Congo from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they had fled during the civil war and rebel sympathisers from the Pool region who had come out of hiding. "Following their return to the capital and to welcome sites set up by the government, 353 were arrested. They disappeared and are widely believed to have been executed," AFP reported. The agency reported that Dabira had missed an initial summons to attend court as a witness on Wednesday. It quoted his lawyer, Jacques Verges, as saying his client had been delayed in reaching France because of the fighting in the Republic of Congo. Verges said his client was being called as a witness and "not being placed under judicial investigation" - the first step towards formal state charges. The hearing has been rescheduled for 8 July.