Niger: A Major Step Backwards

The deteriorating situation was particularly noticeable during the July 1996 presidential elections, which were won by General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara in spite of gross irregularities that were condemned both at home and abroad. Hundreds of people were arrested solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and association. Party political leaders were placed under house arrest, and dozens of party members were held incommunicado and beaten. Many of them were publicly humiliated; some were exiled to the north of the country, others were subjected to mock executions.

Amnesty International does not favour any particular type of government, but it insists that the authorities respect human rights. Amnesty International has always condemned past human rights violations in Niger, particularly those committed against civilians of the Tuareg community. Its present concern is for the significant decline in respect for human rights since the January 1996 coup. It condemns the Niger authorities' systematic attempts to stifle the press and civil society and to intimidate any form of peaceful political opposition.

On the eve of the parliamentary elections originally planned for 10 November, but which may be somewhat delayed, Amnesty International appeals to the new Head of State, General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, and to the new members of parliament to ensure that Niger respects the safeguards written into its Constitution and also its international human rights commitments.

Amnesty International urges an immediate end to the impunity enjoyed by the security forces since the January 1996 coup. For this purpose, prompt, thorough and independent investigations should be opened into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and the perpetrators of such acts should be brought to justice. It is also the duty of the new authorities in Niger to prevent fresh human rights violations by establishing new safeguards with respect to judicial supervision of arrest and detention procedures.

State of emergency and suspension of the Constitution

On its seizure of power in January 1996, the new Conseil de salut national (CSN), Council of National Salvation, formed from the Niger military, declared a state of emergency and curfew along with a string of exceptional measures: the suspension of Niger's Constitution, adopted by referendum on 26 December 1992, the dismissal of the President and the government, the suspension of political parties, the dissolution of parliament and a ban on all demonstrations and political activity.

These measures rudely interrupted the long process of democratization that had begun in 1990 and had resulted in official recognition of the freedoms of association and expression. The end of the one-party system had made it possible to call a national conference in July 1991 and to appoint a transitional government which ran the country until the first multi-party elections in 1993.

The elections were won by a coalition of opposition parties against the former single party, the Mouvement national pour la société de développement (MNSD), National Movement for the Society of Development. However, as soon as it had won power, the government coalition collapsed. In September 1994 Mahamadou Issoufou, the Prime Minister, decided to resign in protest at the erosion of his responsibilities. Parliamentary elections were brought forward and won by the opposition, leading to a period of uneasy cohabitation, beginning in February 1995, between the President, Mahamane Ousmane, and his Prime Minister, Hama Amadou, one of the leaders of the MNSD, the former single party.

Ending the rivalry between the two chief executives, which threatened to paralyse the state, was the official reason for the military's seizure of power on 27 January 1996. The coup was condemned by a large number of countries in Africa and throughout the world, as well as by international bodies such as the General Secretariat of the United Nations (UN), the Conseil permanent de la francophonie, Permanent Council of Francophone Countries, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). France broke off her civil and military cooperation and the USA suspended its aid, as did the European Union and Canada.

A few days after the coup, Amnesty International wrote to the President of the Council of National Salvation, Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, and to the secretaries general of the UN and the OAU, to inform them of its concern over arbitrary arrests and the suspension of the important safeguards for human rights and freedoms contained in the Niger Constitution of 1992. Amnesty International also wrote in similar terms to the Conseil d'entente régional, Council for Regional Understanding, that unites Niger with Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and which had sent representatives to Niamey only a few hours after the coup.

The coup marked a significant decline in respect for human rights in Niger. The previous government itself had by no means always shown respect for human rights, and up until 1994 Amnesty International had repeatedly condemned the detention without charge or trial of dozens of members of the Tuareg minority, some of whom had been beaten and tortured. (See Niger: Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns in 1992, AI Index: AFR 43/02/93).

In August 1992, for example, about 70 members of the Tuareg minority were arrested and detained for nine months without charge or trial. Most were prisoners of conscience, arrested because of their ethnic origin and with no evidence of any links with the Tuareg armed rebellion. In December 1993, two Tuareg market gardeners, Wharguiss Founta and Karbey Moussa, were killed by troops at Tchin-Tibizguit oasis, near Agadez, while they were on their way to market to sell their vegetables. This was probably a reprisal for the theft of a vehicle, for which armed rebels were held responsible. Tension was considerably relieved by the signature at Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on 24 April 1995 of a peace agreement between the armed rebels and the Niger authorities. The agreement provides for partial autonomy for the northern regions where the Tuareg are in a majority, and for the demobilization of Tuareg fighters with a view to their integration into the army, police and civil service. The latter provision is already being implemented. In March 1996 the former Tuareg rebels sent the government a list of their fighters, and on 15 July 1996 an agreement was signed for the integration of 1,400 rebel fighters into the army and paramilitary corps. In addition, September saw the formation, in the north of the country, of mixed patrols composed of members of the Niger armed forces, some factions of the former Tuareg rebellion and an armed Arab militia.

The January 1996 coup brought an abrupt decline in respect for human rights. With the suspension of the 1992 Constitution and the declaration of a state of emergency, all basic human freedoms – including recent gains such as the freedoms of expression and association – have been placed in jeopardy.

The state of emergency was declared on 27 January 1996, in defiance of the checks and procedures routinely established by national constitutions. Article 55 of the Constitution of 26 December 1992 stipulated, among other things, that before adopting any exceptional measures required by the circumstances, the president should consult the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the President of the Supreme Court. In addition, the National Assembly may not be dissolved while emergency powers are in force.

Although they permit relaxations during states of emergency, a number of international standards nevertheless stress that certain rights, by reason of their importance, are non-derogable in any circumstances, including states of emergency. These essential rights are referred to in Article 4, paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Niger in 1986; they include the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

The Council of National Salvation itself acknowledged, in its very first ordinance, that the Republic of Niger guaranteed the rights and liberties of the citizen as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of 1981.[1] This official declaration by the new government of Niger did not prevent them from violating internationally recognized human rights, even after the lifting of the state of emergency on 23 May 1996.

The lifting of the state of emergency marked a full return to constitutionality. On 12 May 1996 a new constitution was adopted by referendum. The new text strengthens the power of the President without threatening fundamental human freedoms. A week later, the authorities announced the lifting of the ban on political parties, which had been in force since the 27 January coup.

However, human rights violations were to recur and even increase during the July presidential elections. These were marred by gross irregularities: many voter registration cards had not been prepared on time, some polling stations in Niamey were impossible to locate, and, in particular, ballot boxes were confiscated at polling stations by uniformed personnel. In addition, on the second day of voting, 8 July, the Niger Government decided to dissolve the Commission nationale électorale indépendante (CENI), National Independent Electoral Commission, which had repeatedly called for polling to be postponed because of lack of preparation. The CENI was replaced the same day by a Commission nationale des élections (CNE), National Elections Commission, with a chairman personally appointed by General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara.

Although both the Niger Bar Association and the Association nigérienne des droits de l'homme (ANDDH), Niger Human Rights Association, condemned the halting of normal electoral procedures and supported the CENI, General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was declared the victor by the Supreme Court with 52.22 per cent of the vote. Although the USA and the European Union immediately cast doubt on the credibility of the elections and were minded to reconsider their economic aid to Niger, France, while maintaining that the dissolution of the CENI raised "queries", acknowledged General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara's victory and sent its Minister for Cooperation, Jacques Godfrain, to the investiture of Niger's new Head of State on 7 August 1996.

The dissolution of the CENI is still disputed by the opposition parties, who on 15 September set up a "Front pour la restauration et la défense de la démocratie" (Front for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy). These parties have made their participation in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, due between now and the end of the year, conditional on the reinstatement of the National Independent Electoral Commission.

Arbitrary arrests

The coup, which officially cost six lives in clashes between the Presidential Guard and the coup plotters, led to the arrest of the country's main political leaders. President Mahamane Ousmane was arrested on 27 January 1996 at the Palais des Congrès in Niamey, where his party, the Convention démocratique et sociale (CDS), Democratic Social Convention, was holding a conference. He was held for five days in a military barracks in the capital. The Prime Minister, Hama Amadou, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mahamadou Issoufou, were also held for two days in the barracks of Tondibiah training camp, 18 km from Niamey. All three were later brought back to their homes, where they were kept under house arrest. Their telephones were cut off, and because of the state of emergency no one was allowed to see them without the permission of the Army Chief of Staff. They did not regain their freedom of movement until 24 April 1996, three months after the military coup.

The state of emergency declared by the Council of National Salvation also made possible several arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, and incommunicado detentions extended without court order beyond the legal limit for police custody, which is 48 hours, renewable once on the authority of the public prosecutor or of an examining magistrate. On 14 February 1996, seven people, including close associates of the overthrown President, such as the former Minister of the Interior, Ousmane Oumarou, and CDS member of parliament, Tilla Boulama, were arrested on the strength of allegations that they had attempted to obtain arms in order to mount a coup. They were all freed several days later without being brought to court.

The state of emergency has also allowed the setting-aside of judicial controls over the legality of arrests. These are carried out merely on the strength of a political order, without a warrant, and are mainly the work of the military and of two police departments: the Renseignements généraux, General Intelligence, responsible to the Ministry of the Interior, and the Centre de documentation d'État (CDE), State Documentation Centre, a political police force answering directly to the Head of State.

The aim of all these arbitrary arrests is to intimidate members of political parties and journalists intending to oppose the new military government by means of articles or pamphlets. Under cover of the state of emergency, these short-term arrests are carried out quite illegally, without application of the procedures for pre-trial detention or investigation laid down by the Niger Code of Criminal Procedure.

The state of emergency has also allowed the military to raid homes at any hour of the day or night without a warrant. On 10 February 1996, soldiers arrived at the homes of Moussa Tchangari and Ibrahim Hamidou, directors of L'Alternative (The Alternative) and La Tribune du peuple (Tribune of the People) respectively, with the obvious intention of arresting them. The journalists, who were not at home, had to hide for several days in order to evade capture. They appear to have been targeted because their papers had maintained that the coup had been carried out on behalf of other people. On 12 April, Souley Adji, a sociology professor at Niamey University, was arrested at his home and held for three days for writing an article critical of the military government.

Arbitrary arrests increased during the July 1996 presidential elections. The authorities systematically harassed any individual, politician, journalist or opposition party grassroots activist who protested against the halting of normal procedures for the presidential elections. The manifest aim of the security forces was to spread fear in civil society so as to intimidate any protest movement, whether originating from political parties or local human rights organizations.

On 8 July 1996, the second day of polling, the four opposition candidates, Mahamane Ousmane, Mamadou Tandja, President of the former single party, the Mouvement national pour la société de développement (MNSD), National Movement for the Society of Development, Moumouni Djermakoye, leader of the Alliance nigérienne pour la démocratie et le progrès (ANDP), Niger Alliance for Democracy and Progress, and Mahamadou Issoufou, President of the Parti nigérien pour la démocratie et le socialisme (PNDS), Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism, were placed under house arrest for two weeks. Freed on 22 July 1996, Mahamadou Issoufou was again placed under house arrest four days later along with Mohamed Bazoum, the former Foreign Minister, for refusing to meet General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara.

The illegality of this detention was clearly established by the Niamey Appeal Court, to which the case had been submitted by the attorney for the two PNDS leaders. The judge noted that house arrest can only be justified in the context of a state of siege or emergency declared in accordance with the Constitution.[2] The judge added that "even in circumstances of this sort, it can only be imposed by specific statutory orders notified to the persons concerned". In the absence of a state of emergency or siege and of statutory orders restricting the liberty of the two politicians and officially communicated to them, the judge ordered their immediate release, which took place on 12 August 1996.

The court's decision did not prevent the Niger security forces from carrying out another arbitrary arrest on 28 August 1996, when another PNDS activist, Djibo Djafarou, a former Sub-Prefect of Mayahi, was arrested at his home for having visited his party leader, Mahamadou Issoufou, while the latter was under house arrest. The former sub-prefect was held incommunicado until 13 September without being brought to court, well outside the legal limit of police custody.

In general, the authorities in Niger have persisted in their attempts to intimidate the opposition long after the declaration of the results of the presidential elections. For instance, the ban on all demonstrations and political meetings, announced in a statement from the Minister of the Interior on 9 July, remained in force for three months, until 4 October 1996.

Amnesty International is particularly concerned at the setting-aside of judicial control over arrests and conditions of detention. It condemns the impunity with which, since January 1996, members of the police and army have arrested, ill-treated and humiliated civilians, without any legal justification and for no apparent reason other than their political opinions.

Torture and ill-treatment

In the days following the presidential elections of July 1996, dozens of opposition party members were arrested and ill-treated in Niamey when they came to offer non-violent support for their leaders who were under house arrest.

The arrests were made after the Minister of the Interior had issued, on 9 July 1996, an announcement banning all public demonstrations. The opposition parties called on their supporters to defy the ban, pointing out that a measure of this sort would be unenforceable as it was based not on an official ordinance but merely on an announcement without the force of law.

On 11 July a crowd of party political sympathizers who were preparing to demonstrate peacefully in front of the CDS offices were attacked by a squad of police using tear-gas grenades. The intervention of the security forces was marked by extreme violence. Ibrahim Maman, a former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economics and Finance with responsibility for the budget in the transitional government set up in 1991, was beaten by several police officers (known familiarly as Ninjas) belonging to the Compagnie nationale de sécurité (CNS), National Security Corps, who flung themselves at him wielding truncheons. They hit him on the head, causing wounds that required several stitches. The former Secretary of State was afterwards arrested with about 40 other opposition party members, and all were sent to Ekrafane, a military camp 300 km to the north of Niamey. For a week they were subjected to a whole series of tortures and ill-treatment. All were beaten for long periods and had their heads shaved. They were then forced to insult their political leaders publicly and to sing the praises of the new Head of State. Some, such as Tarno Balla, a former Prefect of Zinder who was over 50 years old, were forced to crawl up a hill.

The Niger security forces also carried out mock executions. A member of the political bureau of the PNDS, Massaoudou Hassoumi, a former Minister of Communications, Culture, Youth and Sport in the first government of the Third Republic (from April 1993 to November 1994), was arrested at his home on 13 July 1996 by order of the Renseignements généraux. The soldiers took him to Ekrafane where he was brutally tortured. Several times they stood him in front of a firing-squad, blindfolded him, and gave the order to shoot in the air in order to terrify him.

After a week of ill-treatment, the prisoners were taken back to Niamey where they remained held incommunicado in a CNS school in Gamkale, a district of the capital. They were all subsequently released without being brought to court or charged with any offence.

There has also been public acknowledgement of the security forces' resort to ill-treatment in Zinder by the prefect of that department, Abou Oumarou, in an interview published in the Démocrate newspaper on 22 July 1996. Following a demonstration which, unlike those at Niamey, had degenerated into violence with the setting-up of barricades and tyre-burning, about 100 people were arrested in Zinder, the home town of the overthrown President, Mahamane Ousmane, on 11 July. When questioned by the reporter about cases where people had been stripped naked and forced to dance and simulate the sexual act on the ground, the Prefect of Zinder confirmed "that two people who had been particularly insolent to the police [had] been publicly humiliated".

Amnesty International is also seriously concerned at the use of prolonged incommunicado detention, which was systematic in July 1996 in cases involving opposition party sympathizers. The practice contravenes Article 9, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that "No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law". It is during these periods of incommunicado detention, when suspects are without access to their families, to a lawyer and sometimes even to a doctor, that most cases of torture and ill-treatment known to Amnesty International occur, including beatings, degrading treatment and mock executions.

Attacks on the freedom of the press

The existence of a free press, which came to life in 1990 after decades of total control of the media by the state, has played an essential part in the defence of human rights and fundamental human freedoms in Niger. This freedom of expression was immediately threatened by the new government that emerged from the military coup.

On 6 February 1996, Moulaye Abdoulaye, director of the daily Le Soleil (The Sun) and a close associate of the overthrown President Mahamane Ousmane, was arrested in Niamey by soldiers who forced him into their vehicle. He was driven 10 km out of town and beaten up before being released.

In early May, the publishing director of La Tribune du peuple, Ibrahim Hamidou, was held for several days for publishing an article entitled "CSN: the path of treachery", in which, without calling for violence or encouraging resort to it, he challenged the candidacy of General Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara in the forthcoming presidential elections.

Harassment of journalists increased during the presidential elections of July 1996. The security services were responsible for frequent short-term arrests and ill-treatment in an attempt to bring into line an independent press which refused to be intimidated and which continued to denounce human rights violations and ballot-rigging during the presidential elections. On 7 July 1996, the first day of polling, police raided the premises of the private radio station Anfani, whose broadcasts were suspended for three weeks, and held one of its reporters, Souleymane Issa Maïga, for several hours.

Soldiers also restricted the freedom of movement of reporters who wanted to conduct investigations in the provinces. On 13 July Moussa Kaka, a journalist on the weekly Le Républicain (The Republican) and correspondent of Radio-France-Internationale (RFI), was arrested at Birni-Konni (450 km east of Niamey) when he tried to reach Zinder in order to report the arrests that had occurred there. He was forcibly returned to Niamey, where he was held for a day.

The Niger authorities continued to harass journalists long after the end of the presidential elections. On 21 July, Maman Abou, publishing director of the weekly Le Républicain and chairman of the editors of the free press, was arrested at his home at 6 am by officers of the Renseignements généraux. His head was shaved before he was released several hours later.

Foreign journalists and Niger nationals working for international publications were also subjected to arrest and threats during the presidential elections. On 8 July, two reporters, Moussa Kaka and Laurent Chaffard, respectively local and special correspondent of RFI, were stopped outside the home of an opposition candidate, Moumouni Djermakoye, and held for an hour. The same day, Gabrielle Lorne, special correspondent for Agence internationale d'images de télévision (AITV), International TV Picture Agency, and the cameraman who was with her were stopped by police and questioned for two hours.

Responsibility for this campaign of press intimidation, far from belonging to police units acting locally on their own initiative, was claimed publicly on 13 July by the Minister of the Interior, Idi Ango Omar, who on national radio described Niger nationals working for RFI and the BBC as "stateless persons", and issued them with a public caution in what he called "a final national warning".

These official threats were actually carried out two weeks later when the BBC's local correspondent, Abdoulaye Seyni, was arrested by the Renseignements généraux and held for four days, apparently for referring publicly to an American State Department press release criticizing the conditions under which the presidential elections of 7 and 8 July had been held and announcing the intention of the USA to cut off economic aid to Niger.

Amnesty International considers all the above-mentioned journalists to have been harassed and arrested solely for exercising, without using or advocating violence, their rights to freedom of conscience and expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Amnesty International appeals to the new Head of State elected in July 1996, and to the members of parliament who are due to be elected in the near future, to make respect for human rights an absolute priority. Niger has a duty to respect internationally established human rights standards, particularly those regarding rules of arrest and detention, in order to prevent torture and ill-treatment. Every effort should be made to respect and strengthen Niger's gradual gains with regard to the freedoms of expression and association.

[1] Ordinance no. 96-001 of 30 January 1996, regarding governmental organization during the transitional period.

[2] Article 53 of the new Constitution, adopted by referendum on 12 May 1996, prescribes the same procedures laid down by the 1992 Constitution and adds a new safeguard, namely that the National Assembly should assess the length of time for which emergency powers are to be in force, and cut it short in the event of abuse.