Amnesty International Report 1995 - Senegal

Eleven prisoners of conscience were held for a week. About 150 political prisoners were detained for five months after a violent demonstration, most of whom appeared to be prisoners of conscience; one died in custody, reportedly as a result of torture. The authorities failed to investigate reports of torture. Reports of torture and "disappearances" in previous years had still not been investigated. Opposition to the government's economic policies intensified in February, after a currency devaluation, and there was controversy about whether opposition political leaders were responsible for the political violence which occurred. Following public protests, some of them viol-ent, large numbers of people associated with opposition parties were arrested, especially members of the Islamist youth movement Moustarchidina wal Moustarchidati, Men and Women of Truth (known as the Moustarchadines). The Moustarchadines were allied to the Coordination des forces démocratiques (CFD), Coordination of Democratic Forces, an association of five opposition parties. The murder in May 1993 of Maître Babacar Sèye, Vice-President of the Constitutional Council (see Amnesty International Report 1994), continued to have wide repercussions. Four men were tried in September and convicted of this apparently politically motivated murder, but speculation continued about who had ordered the killing; the authorities exploited the uncertainty in an attempt to discredit the opposition. In May charges arising from Maître Sèye's murder were dropped against Maître Abdoulaye Wade, leader of the main opposition party, Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS), Senegalese Democratic Party, and six other political figures. The prosecution appealed against the decision. Two of those against whom charges were dropped had spent more than a year in custody and were released only after going on hunger-strike, shortly before the decision was confirmed on appeal in September. One of the two was a PDS member of parliament, Mody Sy, who had reportedly been tortured in custody in May 1993. The murder investigation itself was marred by a series of shortcomings, notably the apparent failure to hold a full autopsy, and the failure to investigate impartially different allegations. Members of the PDS, who were first implicated in the murder, were charged and detained, but subsequent allegations implicating the Prime Minister were apparently not pursued. Efforts by defence lawyers to persuade relevant witnesses to testify were discouraged by the presiding trial judge. During the Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting in November for the 1995 UN World Conference on Women, Mauritanian human rights activists were prevented from displaying pictures of torture victims in Mauritania and were later deported from Senegal. There were reports that Casamance separatist groups kidnapped and ill-treated some local government officials before releasing them. However, there was no repetition of the violence experienced in the first half of 1993. Four men from Casamance were extradited from Guinea-Bissau in June 1994 and remained held without trial in Dakar, the capital, at the end of the year. In November, they were questioned for the first time about allegations of buying arms and offences against the security of the state. One prisoner was convicted in January and sentenced to one year's imprisonment; he appeared to be a prisoner of conscience. Moustapha Sy, spiritual leader of the Moustarchadines, was arrested in October 1993 after criticizing government policy at a PDS meeting. He was found guilty of activities aimed at discrediting the state. He was released in September following a presidential pardon. Eleven prisoners of conscience were held for a week in February. They were all members of two opposition parties, the PDS and the Parti africain pour la démocratie et le socialisme (PADS), African Party for Democracy and Socialism. They were arrested on 14 February for publicizing an authorized public meeting organized for 16 February by the CFD to protest against the currency devaluation. They were tried on 21 February and each given a one-month suspended sentence on the grounds that they had not obtained prior approval from government officials for their information sessions. About 150 people, most of whom appeared to be prisoners of conscience, were held for five months. The majority were Moustarchadines, but also arrested were Maître Wade, leader of the PDS, and Landing Savané, leader of the PADS. They were arrested and charged with various offences, including undermining the security of the state, in connection with a demonstration which took place after the authorized CFD meeting on 16 February. Eight people were killed, six of them police officers, in violent disturbances after the meeting broke up. In the days following, about 150 people were arrested, but most appeared to have been detained because of their political activities rather than because of any evidence that they had organized or participated in acts of violence on 16 February. The authorities violated the parliamentary immunity of Maître Wade, Landing Savané and a PDS member of parliament, Pape Oumar Kane. Most of the detainees were released on 19 July and the charges against them were dropped. After the July releases, 24 Moustarchadines remained in custody. In September they were tried and all but one were sentenced to between six months' and two years' imprisonment. Another member was sentenced in absentia to five years' imprisonment. They were found guilty of participating in an illegal march and violence leading to bloodshed. However, in some cases individual responsibility for acts of violence was not clearly established and allegations that testimonies used to convict people had been obtained under torture were not investigated by the court. One suspect arrested after the February demonstrations, Lamine Samb, a leading member of the Moustarchadines, died in detention, probably as a result of torture. He was arrested on 17 February and died two days later. He was reported to have been in good health at the time of his arrest and to have been tortured in custody. However, replying to these allegations, the Minister of Justice cited an autopsy report, which was never made public, in which five medical experts concluded that Lamine Samb had died as a result of a heart attack and extensive bruising; they made no attempt to account for the bruising. The Minister claimed that Lamine Samb had been seriously injured during the demonstration before his arrest. However, police did not arrange medical treatment for him until one hour before he died. In June Amnesty International published a report, Senegal: Mass arrests and torture, about the large-scale arrests and reports of torture following the February demonstration. A submission to the authorities in November 1993 expressing Amnesty International's concern about cases of torture and "disappearances" in 1992 and 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994) was also published after receiving no response from the authorities. In July the Minister of Justice replied to Amnesty International and stated that investigations into "disappearances" in the Casamance region requested in November 1993 were still under way but that there was no progress. He disputed the reports that Lamine Samb had died in custody as a result of torture. Responding to reports that Mody Sy and Ramata Guèye had been tortured in 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994), he stated that an official complaint lodged by lawyers in July 1993 had been passed to the gendarmerie and had been rejected for lack of evidence. Amnesty International considered the inquiries into these two cases to be completely inadequate. Despite calls from Amnesty International and a local human rights organization, the Rencontre africaine pour la défense des droits de l'homme, African Conference for the Defence of Human Rights, the authorities did not make public the full medical report on Lamine Samb.