Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2003 - Senegal

International Federation for Human Rights, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2003 - Senegal, 14 April 2004, https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/ifhr/2004/en/28775 [accessed 20 April 2024]
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Mr. Alioune Tine questioned and intimidated58

In March 2003, Mr. Alioune Tine, General Secretary of the African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (Rencontre africaine pour la défense des droits de l'Homme – RADDHO) was summoned by the Criminal Investigations Division (Division des investigations criminelles – DIC), for questioning about his support for the National Coalition for Togolese Civil Society (Coalition Nationale de la Société Civile Togolaise) that wanted to organise a seminar in Senegal, with the support of the European Union. Senegal had refused to accommodate the meeting.

On 20th June 2003, Mr. Tine was called in again to the State security services which are under the Interior ministry. He was asked about his relations with Mr. Jemil Ould Mansour, a Mauritanian opposition activist who had fled to Senegal after the unsuccessful attempted coup d'État in Mauritania on 14th-16th June 2003. This interrogation was prompted by the public statements RADDHO had made during the political unrest in Mauritania. Although he condemned the attempted putsch, Mr. Tine also pointed to the serious risks faced by Mauritania refugees, were they to be extradited to their home country. Since there is no extradition agreement between the two countries, Senegal, he stressed, must accept the provisions of the international human rights instruments that guarantee the right to life.

During the interrogation, police inspector Mbaye Sady Diop insisted that "the Senegalese government would hold for responsible any person who tried to help Mr. Jemil escaping the law or escaping abroad". The director of the Security services, Mr. Cheikhou Sakho, told Mr. Tine that hiding Mr. Jemil constituted a concealment of someone liable under ordinary law.

Mr. Tine said that he only knew Mr. Jemil through the press and through Mauritanian friends. He did mention, however, that Mr. Jemil risked a life-long prison sentence if he was extradited to his home country. He also mentioned the obligation of Senegal to "offer Mr. Jemil political asylum or enable him to find refuge in some other country".

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

58. See open letter to the Senegalese authorities dated 23rd June 2003.

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