MONDAY, 28 July 2008

Al Rabih Ould Edum

(Translated from Arabic) 

She is the youngest divorcee on record at human rights organizations in Mauritania…Smart, and well-spoken, she knows how to express what had happened to her…

When we arrived at her parents' humble home, she was sitting with her peers… a group of girls, not a group of women… Upon first meeting her, it was hard to believe that this is the same girl who got married in Saudi Arabia, the girl who carries in her small purse a triple divorce certificate… It was hard to understand that behind her dreamy eyes, innocent face and slender form lay the tragedy of a child that had joined the divorcee club even before she had practiced fasting in the month of Ramadan, not once, not even for a try.

We hesitated for a while at the door of the house she sat in… Um El Kheyr would not let us enter immediately… She had wanted to cover her head, since we were, after all, "foreigners", as the child described.

Her journey had been long, and her experience deep… Her story was overwhelming… In just one year, this child's innocent soul, life-embracing and curious, had lost all innocence… Her papers had been forged… She had been coerced and tortured into marriage… She had been kidnapped, snatched away from her father who had been forced by adversity to grant his daughter’s custody over to his sister…as he searched for a sustaining livelihood… The girl had been through enough alienation, oppression and violation, that she had become dreamy-eyed, as though searching for an unknown haven to rest in.

She did not cry when detailing the hurtful story… More unnerving was that the wounds inflicted had robbed her from her childhood and left no place for reserve… The child recounted the rape in minute detail in the presence of her father, who was sorrow-riddled as he stroked his dignified white beard…saying that what had happened was a heinous crime committed against his daughter…confirming that he stood by her right.

"Um El Kheyr" is ten years old… Her father, Sayed Muhammad Ould EL Tijani, 42, is a travelling salesman… He says about the experience: "Last year, the mother of my daughter passed away… It was then that I decided to take her to the eastern states, to my sister in Nouakchott, the capital, so that she would supervise her education and upbringing…

But my sister Maymuna, he adds, had a different point of view. She took the girl to Saudi Arabia without my knowing it… to where her son and daughter lived. She took the child along with her daughter whom a Saudi had married and asked for her… So, there, in Saudi Arabia, was my little child, living with my sister's son, and my sister's daughter and her husband. The man would often take his new wife to a hotel, spending there most of the time, and my little child, who was not a day older than ten, would be left alone with her 25-year-old cousin… One day, the young man found himself alone with my sleeping daughter… He raped her, and there was no one to keep him from committing this evil act…"

Um El Kheyr interjects saying: "My cousin "Abd El Lateef" raped me in Saudi Arabia when we were all alone in the house… We would never usually be in the same room, but my married cousin [his sister] was not around… Afterwards, I tried to call my father, but I couldn't."

According to her father, he had received a call in Nouakchott from the father of the young man who had raped the child, telling him that he wanted them married… Um El Kheyr's father recalls: "I wasn't aware then about the rape…and I had actually agreed to the marriage, but I didn't believe that he meant then and there, I had thought that he wanted them promised to each other… I told him that the procuration should be in the hands of an honest person. He promised to contact two of my cousins in whom I trusted, for me to vest them the authority of overseeing my daughter's marriage at the time they see that she has become eligible to do so… When he was hours late to call me back, I contacted him that very same evening… I asked him what had happened concerning our conversation, and he said that what we had talked about was done and over with, that the marriage was contracted… I yelled at him, asking him who had given him permission to marry my daughter to his son, and where were the people whom we had agreed would be granted the authority over my daughter… He hung up on me, and since then he would not take my calls, and would arrange to be in Nouakchott only when I am in the central states."

As for the child, she comments the rape and marriage that had happened successively, saying: "After my cousin raped me, he told me that he had done that because he would marry me… So, I told him, and I told everyone, that I will not get married, that I did not want to get married, that I did not want to get married to that person in particular… But my opinion did not matter at all."

According to data from the "Mauritanian Housewives' League", the groom returned to the country with his young bride, who still played with children and loved candy… and had a hard time dealing with all that had happened… Her father was not contacted to tell him the news, and she did not know that he was in the capital where she had arrived, but thought that he was roaming the central states, trading as usual… In a matter of days, he found out, and his sons-in-law visited him, accompanied by the child… This visit only lasted ten minutes, during which the father asked his daughter why she had not called to say that she was coming… She told him that she did not know that he was in the capital, and that she did not have a phone to call him… So, he gave her one that he owned, and told her to call him often… He said that he had done it because he did not want to get into a fight with a young man of twenty-five, that he blamed his brother-in-law for what had befallen his daughter… and that with him alone, would he discuss the matter.

The child's husband would not talk to us, since, according to him, he saw no need to… But the divorce certificate he sent one day after a call made by her father, reveal part of his perspective on the subject… The certificate stated: "In the name of Allah, the all Merciful the all Compassionate and His prophet, peace be upon him. This is a letter of divorce…

I, Mr. "Abd El Lateef son of…" hereby bear witness in front of Allah, His prophet, and those who believe in Him, that I have divorced Um EL Kheyr, daughter of Sayed Muhammad, a triple divorce, due to the bad company of her parents, and the hypocrisy of their treatment, as Allah is witness to my words… Signed by the husband… Date: 14 March 2008."

The girl's father told Sahara Media that the scars due to torture were evident of his daughter's back, as she was, allegedly, whipped by the husband and his brother.

"My husband tortured me with a whip, after my uncle came to advise him against mistreating me and my father, and told him that keeping me from contacting my father was unacceptable… He and his brother threatened my uncle with a knife… They tortured me and humiliated my father."

The Child Hamza: My Brother Hung me on the Ceiling…

And Branded my Body with Searing Metal…

(Translated from Arabic)

Thursday, 31 JULY 2008

Al Rabih Ould Edum - Nouakchott

He is ten years old… A child like all other children in the world… He has the right to play, to have fun, go to school, and to learn… He has the right to learn new languages and go to parks… But as fate would have it, another life awaited him… a life that was anything but what it should have been.

This child who had dropped out of school some time ago… is caught between those people living around him and those who have a negative influence on the quality of his life.

His name is "Hamza Ould Kaynu", he was born in 1998. His mother, Aysha daughter of EL Mukhtar, 35, is a travelling ice-cream saleswoman… and his father, Kaynu Ould Amaran, 60, a porter… Hamza's family lives in the capital Nouakchott.

His elderly father lives on the sidelines… He does not understand modern times at all… He does not even hold an ID… His poor mother dreams of a brilliant future for her son, but all she can offer is what little money she makes and that barely covers the daily expenses of feeding her family. Life had been harsh, and she had been compelled to sell the cold drinks "Bisam"… His older half brothers are in no way role models for him; one had died serving time in jail, and the other has just been released… His two sisters are married, toiling through life with their prince charming.

Life had not been kind to three other brothers; it had dealt them poverty, crises, sickness and inadequate living conditions… They had passed away, and death seemed more merciful than carrying on in this losing struggle for decent living.

He has had a rough life, this shy young fellow… It would stir your emotions to see him walking barefoot in the streets of the capital.

His father had two children before marrying his mother… According to the mother, he had not raised them properly… So, they had grown up on the street, and acquired a violent and delinquent way of life…

His new wife gave birth to two girls, who in turn got married and moved out from the family home… She also gave him two sons, Muhammad, 11… and Hamza, 10.

Hamza's two brothers were jailed for committing crimes… One had died serving time last year (2007)… The other survived and was released, only to be interned again after two months… promising to change his life for the better… and swearing that he repented.

After a while, "Daoud" asked his step-mother to leave the two children in his custody, so he would teach them a trade that would do them good in this life and in the hereafter… He took them with him to where he lived, and got them started in car repair… The mother did not object to her sons going into this line of business, even though she had wanted them to go to school, she was illiterate and had wanted her sons to get and education.

Hamza was opposed to working in a garage… and told his brother firmly that he will not go into this business… That earned him punishment, in the eyes of his elder brother, and this punishment almost cost him his life… His brother had tortured him until he was on the brink of death.

His mother presented the case to the Prosecutor General at the Palace of Justice in the capital Nouakchott… She filed a complaint to the police… She contacted the media to draw people's attention to her struggle.

Today, Hamza's mother is with her sister… She cannot afford the 1500 ouguiya (USD 7) needed to get her son examined, and find out if his bones are broken or fractured… She cannot even afford the taxi fare… to travel… Her last few ouguiyas were spent on medicine for the child… She is now caught in a vicious circle… But she has faith in Allah; He does not forget those who worship Him.

Her husband stood by his son, she confirms… He told her that he was her son too even if she had not given birth to him… that filing a complaint against him was unacceptable… To this she answered that evil should not be harbored against others, the truth should be declared in public, and those with just claim should defend their right… He got angry with her… They have not reconciled yet.

"A month ago, my brother "Daoud Ould Kaynu" took me away from my mother to a garage owner in "Ksar" named "Obeid" to teach me to become a mechanic, but I would often skip going to work, so he started hitting me because of that… But I told him that I did not want to become a mechanic and that I will return to the "mahzara" (Quranic School)... So, he finally accepted to do as I asked.

The very same day he took me to the "Mina" market to buy some food items and carry them to the house of his "nephew", but I did not wait for him… I went to my mother's house is "Casablanca". When he returned to his house, he took me by the hand and led me to a remote place next to pole 6 in the "Mendez" neighborhood (a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Nouakchott). He made me go inside a dark house and he closed to door. He went in after me carrying some rope. He then gagged me, took some charcoal and started a fire. He placed a nail in it and waited for it to become red hot, and started searing me, all over my body."

The child, who seemed shaken by the memories of physical and psychological torture, added:

"No one heard me screaming, because he had gagged me. As I was about to lose consciousness, he took some rope and he tied it around my hands and feet, and hung me on a beam in the ceiling of the house. He took a whip and beat me repeatedly. He left me a whole day in that place. Then in the evening, he untied me and ordered me to go to the "Souk Al Maghreb" to fix my brother's bicycle. I took the opportunity to go to my mother's house. I told her the story and showed her the scars of torture on my body… She cried and cried because of what had happened to me… Around the time of Evening Prayer, he came to my mother and told her that he was taking me away with him… She refused… He tried to snatch me away from her, but after some neighbors appeared he left our house. My mother reported the incident to the police… I am terrified; I expect to be tortured again by my brother…"

Six teenage girls sit on a bench in front of a house built with wooden scraps and corrugated roofing sheets at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra. From time to time, one of them runs her fingers through her hair and bites her finger nails. Another yawns, followed by a deep sigh from the other. But their boredom would soon be eased.

They have already been sold to pimps in Europe. Next week Wednesday they would be gone, ‘smuggled’ through Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to their pimps.

The Crusading Guide’s eight month-long investigations have uncovered a complex web of thriving human trafficking business in Ghana where the ‘dons’ lure Nigerian, Togolese, Beninois and Burkinabe young girls and sell them into prostitution in Europe after hiding them at secret locations in the Greater Accra and Central Regions of Ghana.

The places where they are hidden include McCarthy Hill, Abossey Okai Zongo, Bethlehem City, Adom City, Budumburam Refugee Camp, Big Apple among others. The girls, mostly minors, are exploited in different ways and employed to perpetrate criminal activities in Europe. They are also often used in pornographic movie acting.

The trafficking of these girls in Ghana has always been shrouded in secrecy for the past years. It however, recently took a dramatic twist as profits soared. The business has been institutionalized as the ‘dons’ now rent apartments and camps to hide the many girls, taking advantage of the lack of enforcement of anti-human trafficking laws.

“In the last few months we have trafficked over one thousand girls mainly from Nigeria and Benin through our Ghana route; the market is very good, the officers understand the business”, said Baba, one of the traffickers who was talking to this reporter disguised as a rich businessman wanting to send some girls to Italy.

Most of these girls end up dying while serving their ‘mamas’ (Queen Pimps). Before they set off for the trip, they are made to swear an oath of secrecy in a shrine, where they promise never to reveal their mission to anyone.

Luisa, (not her real name) one of the many girls who was trafficked to Italy through Ghana, told this reporter in Benin City, Nigeria, that most of her friends died in Italy as they engaged in this sex trade.

“I used to sleep with over 25 men a day. When I became fed up and decided not to work, my madam in Turin (one of her three bases in Italy) beat me up with a belt. She would also starve me and threaten me with deportation.

A lot of my friends died at the Rome and Milan bases where we used to rotate. We went through a lot of mental torture and physical abuse right from Ghana. The traffickers were sleeping with us at their whim. I was raped several times and have undergone several crude abortions”, she continued. At this stage, Luisa then ran her hand through her hair, bowed and showed a big scar in her scalp.

“It was stitched in Milan after Cardozo, one of the foolish men who used to violently rape me, hit my head with a broken bottle’, she narrated at her house in Benin City. Luisa also disclosed how Ghanaian security officials helped her group of 16 girls to cross to Spain, France and Italy.

Luisa’s indictment of Ghanaian security officials is supported by evidence available to the Crusading Guide. Investigations indicated that some security officials at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) had been doing brisk business by illegally charging fees to allow the trafficked girls to use the country’s airport as transit to their destinations in Europe to carry out their sex trade.

Orakwe Arinze, spokesman for the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), told this reporter in his Abuja office, Nigeria, that his country was fighting to uproot human trafficking, adding that shelters had been built in the major States in Nigeria where victims are given support and also equipped with skills to move on in life.

Babandede, Director of Investigations for NAPTIP, maintained that his country’s security agencies were on a high alert to weed out traffickers, hence the prosecution of many of them in recent times. ‘We are breaking through their syndicate’, he added.

How some Ghanaian security officers help in the sale

At the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), some Ghanaian Immigration officers charge between 1500 and 1000 dollars per girl before they allow traffickers to carry their victims through.

Many of these officers are said to have enriched themselves through this business, which has been nicknamed ‘abacha’. This reporter has obtained video, audio, and still pictures of many immigration officials not only bargaining with him (reporter) on how much money to take, but also explaining how they share the money with some National Security personnel and Aviation Security Officials stationed at the airport.

This is a short transcript of what transpired between this reporter and two of the officers.

Immigration officer, Kotoka International Airport, Ghana, discussing a trip with six girls to France and the cost (with reporter disguised as trafficker).

Motion picture begins with reporter walking through the bush looking for an immigration official. A tree shows for a while then a hand interrupts the scene as the reporter walks along, billboards of Kotoka International Airport as well as Ghana’s National Flag is shown.

Sounds of vehicles and human voices are heard as the reporter keeps moving until he meets the immigration official. At exactly 6mins 23 sec of motion pictures, the conversation begins as follows:
Reporter: I called the boy; he said they are six so how can you reduce the price for us?

Official: But the six, all of them cannot go at the same time, today two, the next three.

Reporter: That’s why we are saying you have to beat the price down.

Official: If all of them go it will backfire.

Reporter: That’s why we are saying that you have to beat the price down. So, if they are six how much will you take?

Official: We are doing the thing individually, that’s why I’m saying all of them cannot go one day. If all of them go one day the thing will backfire, are you getting me? All of them would not go one day. So today two will go, the next day three will go.

Reporter: So what do you recommend, is it the Emirate Airline which is the best or?

Official: So far Emirates is the best so if they are ready the first batch can go next week Sunday because Sunday I will be for post-departure. But as for Saturday I would have said it should start on Saturday but Saturday, no Emirates. Emirates don’t fly on Saturdays.

Reporter: They will go on Sunday.

Official: Sunday, Monday that is next week, some people can go next week Sunday. Then the next two weeks, Monday.

Reporter: So beat the price down so that I can come and see you maybe on Monday. $1,500 is expensive.

Official: (Raises his voice). Do you know, do you know how much they take? We are even considering you and you say $1,500 is too much, so if it’s too much how much will you give me?

Reporter: Is $1,000, okay so that the six would be six thousand. I would just collect the money one time (two, two, two).

Officer: (looks into the skies) $6,000 (and then calculates). Okay, $1000 for each.

Another official surfaces
Reporter: Chairman, officer, Sir, well done

Official: Den na ekoso (Twi) meaning what is happening?

Reporter: No, I don’t hear. Am a Nigerian man. I wan see you, I use to fly Virgin Nigeria. My sisters want to fly. They want to go to Germany. (Sound is lost interminently). I want to ask can they go from here?

Official: Are you doubting me?

Reporter: As an officer I cannot doubt you.

Official: Me, if you can pay my money am asking I can carry the whole airport to your house. I can carry. Do you want the critical alarm in your house? Chale come on I can do that.

Reporter: I’ll bring it don’t worry.

Official: I shouldn’t worry. Why should I worry, you are coming.

Reporter: Give me your number.

Official: 0242901439.

Reporter: The name is?

Official: Sam.

Reporter: Sammy.

Official: You can call it anything, am Sam.

Reporter: You see we have someone who has been transporting them but the money is too much, we want to change.

Official: How much are they taking, $1000? And you think I will take less than that? I am taking $1500.

Reporter: (sound breaks) My problem is if the visa is genuine. Can you do it?

Official: What’s your problem? Do you have a problem, so come and show it me. Let’s start business.

Reporter: Thank you, okay.

Official: (As he walks away he asks for my name). What’s your name?

Reporter: Uche, I’ll call you.

Official: Don’t fear.

Meanwhile, the child protection, Specialist of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Ghana, Eric Appiah Okrah, in a telephone conversation congratulated The Crusading Guide newspaper on the story. He added that UNICEF would stand by the security agencies and government to prosecute offenders.

On his part, the Counter Trafficking Field Manager of the International Organisation for Migration, Eric Boakye Piasah, said that human trafficking needs to be combated in Ghana. “We have to nail the perpetrators and their collaborators and push them out of Ghana.

My outfit together with others are doing our part. The general public must join to combat this third lucrative crime in the world”.

Dossier on the queen pimps in Italy, Spain and France

While hanging out with the girls from one restaurant to the other and from one Club to the other as part of the investigations, our reporter came across a dossier of phone numbers belonging to both the traffickers and their accomplices. The dossier has been passed on to the various Missions in Ghana to help track the syndicate in the various countries.

TRAFFICKING SYNDICATE BUSTED

17 Girls Rescued In Sting Operation, Busted ‘Don’ Was In Bed With one of the Rescued Girls


At 5. 55 am yesterday a combined team of the Ghana Police Criminal Investigative Department (CID} and the “Crusading GUIDE” smashed one of the hottest human trafficking rings in Ghana, rescuing 17 girls who were on the verge of being sold into prostitution abroad. The girls are between the ages of 19 and 27 years.

The “Crusading GUIDE” after its initial investigations led the CID team to the hideout of one of the traffickers and the girls who were about to be trafficked. Thy were living together with the trafficker in a self contained house at Gbawe a surburb of Accra. One of the girls was found ‘warming’ the bed of the trafficker at the time of arrival, three others hide themselves under a mattress and five others were packed in one small room with light mattresses on the floor serving as their sleeping place.

Passports, birth certificates, passport pictures and other traveling documents were found in their possession. The CID took away these documents for further investigations.

An earlier operation at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra yielded similar result with the ‘don’ trafficker confessing that that they were engaged in trafficking the girls to Italy, Spain, France, United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Nine girls were picked up in one room during that operation; some evidence was also gathered when the office of the trafficker was searched by the police. Stella, one of the victims to be trafficked played a critical role in busting the syndicate.

THEIR OATH OF SECRECY TO THE "GODS" AND THE STING OPERATION

‘Stella’ (not her real name) who took this reporter under the name Alhaji Abdul Majeed as her fiancée in the eight-month long investigation helped to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the operations of the trafficking syndicate in Ghana. She frequented many restaurants and night clubs with this reporter.

It was on one of such freaky outings with her to Jokers Night Club (Labadi), one of the hottest night clubs in Accra, that she revealed to this reporter, under the influence of alcohol, the use of rituals by their pimp madam, to bind them to their commitment of working hard and paying for their expenses to Europe.

“We are made to swear in a shrine never to disclose our mission to anybody; we are told the curses will end up killing us or get us into the mental hospital’ if we say anything about the ‘business” Stella disclosed.

Out of a group of twenty girls, Stella had been left by her ‘Trolly’ (i.e. trafficker) to stay in Ghana for over a year. “Any time I tell him is my turn to go, he brushes the idea aside though he has already been payed 6000 euros for my traveling”, Stella revealed that night.

This reporter convinced her that being a big Alhaji that he is, he knew of a powerful Mallam who could undo the rituals and again work the minds of her ‘Trolly’ to take her to Spain. This she readily agreed to.

Stella was made to believe that a concoction would be prepared for her to pour at the office of the trafficker. When the concoction was finally prepared, the reporter went together with her to pour it at the trafficker’s office.

On the day of the sting operation this reporter was out there with Stella at Chic’n’ Liken restaurant when the police appeared. Stella without any hesitation helped in tracking the movement of the traffickers. Orake Arinze of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic In Persons (NAPTIP) said in an interview that victims of trafficking should be treated well and not as criminals. See page 2 for pictures of the operation. Please stay tuned for more.

17 SEX SLAVES RESCUED

Nigerian Govt. Intervenes And Takes The Girls Back Home For Counseling

In a swift reaction to save them, the Nigerian Government, after negotiations with the Ghana Police, has sent the 17 girls who were about to be trafficked into Europe for sex-trade, back to Nigeria for counseling.

This happened through the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana. Two buses were used in transporting the girls to Lagos where they were handed over to the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition in Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).

Speaking in an interview with The Crusading GUIDE from their Abuja office base, the Spokesperson for NAPTIP, Mr. Orakwe Arinze, confirmed the safe arrival of the girls in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian government is grateful to the Ghana government and the entire Ghana Police Service for saving the lives of our 17 nationals. We are touched by your government efforts,” Mr. Arinze said in a telephone conversation.

“Again, we are so grateful to The Crusading GUIDE for its investigations that led to the rescuing of our citizens. They are now on their way to Abuja from Lagos. We are going to counsel them to understand the devastating effects of human trafficking so that they don’t fall victims again”, assured Mr. Arinze.

He told this paper that while in Abuja, the girls would stay under NAPTIP shelters and given some skills after which they would be taken to their various houses and families.

The NAPTIP official added that the fight against human trafficking should be a collective effort of all, calling on civil society to report any suspicious conduct to the Police for further investigation.

“Most of the girls end up being traumatized or maimed for the rest of their lives so let’s all rise up against this deadly crime and bring the traffickers to book”, he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Deputy boss of the Criminal Investigations Department of Ghana, Mr. Ken Yeboah has also confirmed the release of the girls to the Nigerian government.

“We took the necessary evidence we needed to take before the 17 girls were released to the Nigerian Government. I can assure you the Ghana Police has taken this matter very serious and we would ensure that justice is done”, the Deputy CID boss affirmed.

ACP Kwesi Fori, Head of the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, pledged that his outfit would be working together with The Crusading GUIDE and any other person to fight the illegal trade in future.

He reiterated the fact that the IGP was establishing an anti- trafficking unit solely for investigations and the prosecution of human trafficking ‘dons’.

He also commended the Ivorian Police for their assistance in the release of 33 Ghanaians who were also saddled in the trafficking trade.

The Police spokesperson also affirmed that those in Ghana engaged in internal trafficking would not be left off the hook by the country’s security agencies.

The Crusading GUIDE has picked up signals that the traffickers based in Togo had panicked over the crackdown on their colleagues here in Ghana and were desperately trying to hide any evidence before the Togo Police get on their neck.

“Yesterday 7 girls were moved from Lome by one of the traffickers to an unknown destination because of what happened in Ghana. They are afraid that the Ghanaian authorities would be liaising with Togolese officials for their arrest”, said Kwame Tefle, our source in Togo.

Please stay tuned for more…

IGP ON WAR PATH

Moves Towards The Establishment Of Anti-human Trafficking Unit Within Ghana Police To Rescue More Girls; Immigration Officials To Be Probed.


The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, has taken swift action to establish an anti-human trafficking unit within the Ghana Police to combat the trafficking of young girls from West Africa through Ghana, for prostitution in Europe.

At a meeting with this reporter and other Senior Police personnel, the IGP reiterated the need to flush out the syndicate responsible in Ghana, stressing that it must be a collective effort of both security officials and civil society to combat the human trafficking menace.

In a separate interview, the Deputy Director of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), ACP Ken Yeboah, intimated that his outfit would thoroughly investigate activities of some officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) whose names came up in The Crusading GUIDE investigative report on the trafficking of girls to Europe.

ACP Yeboah affirmed that the Police would look into the matter and prosecute accomplices if need be. ‘We are determined in fighting all who are making this illegal trade thrive in Ghana; nobody would be pardoned” he warned.

On the welfare of the 17 rescued girls, ACP Yeboah said that he had liaised with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs to find a temporary shelter to accommodate them until further notice. He also intimated that the Nigerian High Commission had been notified about the crime since it involves some Nigerians.

When The Crusading GUIDE was in Abuja, Nigeria a few months ago in connection with the story, officials of the National Agency For The Prohibition of Traffic In Persons (NAPTIP), told this reporter that they would send for the trafficked victims to come back to Nigeria. The details of NAPTIP’s intention has already been forwarded to the Ghana Police by The Crusading GUIDE for negotiations in respect of the girls’ repatriation.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its global report, has indicated that more than $32 billion is being generated as profit annually from exploitation of trafficked women, children and men. It has also stated that the lack of harmonized legislative and investigative strategies within the West Africa sub-region was the biggest problem in fighting the canker.

ILO Director in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mrs. Sinanzeni Chuma Mkandawire, has tagged human trafficking as “the slavery of the 21st century”. The latest ILO report on forced labour indicates that 2.5 million persons are estimated to be trafficked at any point in time, of whom minimum of one third are trafficked for economic purposes.

Mkandawire underscored that the ILO’s Special Action Programme Against Trafficking in West Africa (PATWA) was aimed at addressing the structural aspects of the demand and supply of forced labour and human trafficking in the sub-region.

It will be recalled that The Crusading GUIDE’s eight-month long investigations into a human trafficking syndicate led to the crackdown of the network, the subsequent arrest of two suspected traffickers and the rescuing of 17 girls who were on the verge of being sold into prostitution in Europe.

Amandi Mohammed, 30, and Kwadwo Boamah Addai, 50, were busted on October 24 and 25, 2007 respectively, in an operation at Abossey Okai and Gbawe, all suburbs of Accra . A third suspect, Mumuni Abdul Latif, alias Tijani, based at Kasoa in the Central Region, bolted away. However, some victims of the dastardly trade were rescued at Gbawe. The names of the girls rescued at Abossey Okai were given by the Police as Gloria Ebrain, Cynthia Emma, Joyce Samuel, Jennifer Peter, Gifty Ebrain, Lovet Issako, Lucy Ugo, Emmanuel Beauty and Nancy Johnson.

Those rescued at Gbawe included Hope Osagie, Princess Ebabulele, Bola Ayodele, Rosemary Yenni, Vivian Joseph, Becky Asoro, Happy Tom and Blessing Samuel. They are aged between 18 and 25.

A search conducted in Addai’s office and residence by the Ghana Police resulted in the retrieval of seven Ghanaian passports, four vaccination certificates, one international driving licence, 59 birth certificates, two Motorola mobile phones, three bank statements, an invitation letter and a Beninois passport bearing the name Affo Kaffi Seibu.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda, Special to CorpWatch
February 25th, 2008

Sickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.

Kirana is one of 250 million children across the world involved in work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Some 57 million of these endangered children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. And with an estimated 1.4 million child laborers, the small, southern African nation of Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa, according to the Olso, Norway-based, FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science.

Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields. Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village, Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.

Kirana's mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.

Now 12, Kirana has never been to school. For the past six months, his health has been failing and he can no longer work as hard as he used to. His mother says her little boy is malnourished and therefore contracts different infections easily. The family often goes without a proper meal for up to three days.

“Just in the past two months, Kirana has been afflicted by malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia,” Jane Kapito said. “He's my only child and I am so scared of losing him.”

This family's struggle is repeated throughout Malawi's tobacco industry, where poverty ensures that every member must contribute to the workload.

Virginia Import Now Main Malawi Export

Malawi's sprawling tobacco estates are not only a source of national economic pride, but of lovely pastoral vistas as well. Up close though, the sight of child laborers in the hot fields exposes the ugliness at their core.

Commercial production of tobacco in Malawi goes back as far as 1889, when settlers from the U.S. state of Virginia introduced the crop. In those days “foreign masters” forced the native people and their children to work in the farms for little or no pay. Over a century later, this exploitation continues -- with no end in sight.

Increasingly, critics are demanding that the tobacco companies take responsibility for ending the abuses. Given their key role in Malawi's economy, they wield significant clout. Malawi derives up to 70 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from agricultural crops, and the tobacco industry makes up 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Malawi’s exports account for five percent of the world's total tobacco exports and two percent of the world's total production.

But the wealth generated by this resource is not spread evenly across the country. The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog for the tobacco market, estimates that it takes $1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco, which they usually sell at $.70 for a loss of $.30 per kilo. Hardworking farmers who cannot make a living turn to child labor. TCC's 2008 campaign is demanding that farmers get a profit at least 15 percent above production costs.

Despite the TCC campaign, farmers and their families are still at risk of losing money on their crops. And this year the farmers' plight may be further exacerbated by heavy rains that are predicted to cut the country's tobacco production by about 3 percent.

Tenant Farmers’ Dilemma

Up to two million Malawians, mostly poor, depend on tobacco and related industries for their income. Virtually all of the up to 900,000 adult growers are “smallholder farmers, tobacco tenants and casual farm workers,” according to a 2006 research paper by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE), an independent center based at the University of California, San Francisco.

Tenant farmers are allocated a plot of land by the estate owner and required to produce a specific yield. The owners loan the tenants inputs including seed and fertilizer and deduct the debt from future profits -- if any.

The owners are also supposed to supply food rations, but when monthly allocations run out, workers and their children go hungry. Many also lack such basic necessities as medication, proper housing and safe drinking water. Not surprisingly, workers on tobacco estates and their dependants are among the poorest and most oppressed people in Malawi, according to a survey released last December by the Center for Social Concern, a Catholic organization that monitors the welfare of the people.

A minimum of “78,000 children are working on a full- or part-time basis in the tobacco fields, according to the CTCRE study. “Forty-five percent of the child workers are 10-14 years old and 55 percent are 7-9 years old,” the study found. Meanwhile, the tobacco companies have received nearly US$40 million in revenues over four years through the use of unpaid child labor in Malawi.

In 1995, the Malawi government, through the Ministry of Labor in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, started drafting a Tobacco Tenancy Labor Bill to regulate the relations and transactions between the tenant farmers and the landlords.

The bill has been taken through a number of revisions but it has not yet been taken to Parliament.

Supporting Children or Exploiting Them?

Multinational tobacco companies are aware of the public relations implications of profiting not only from tobacco itself, but doing it through the cycle of poverty and child labor. Tobacco companies in Malawi including Alliance One, Africa Leaf (Malawi) Limited, Premium and British American Tobacco (Malawi) are sponsoring the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT). The project, which includes other agricultural industries, is run by Together Ensuring Children Security (TECS), a registered trust set up in 2001 by tobacco exporting corporations operating in Malawi: Africa Leaf, Dimon, Limbe Leaf and Stancom Tobacco.

In 2001, ECLT budgeted US$2 million for a four-year effort to combat child labor. Six years later, in October 2007, the 20 companies within the supply chain of the tobacco industry had ponied up somewhat less than $100,000 of that amount, according to TECS'S corporate newsletter.

The University of California researchers are skeptical of the inherent conflict of interest in having tobacco companies influence social policy. They concluded that in Malawi, transnational tobacco companies are using child labor projects to enhance their corporate reputations and distract public attention away from how they profit from low wages and cheaply produced tobacco.

Others argue that even when useful, the TECS program is a drop in an ocean of poverty. Up to 45 percent of the population is poor, according to the 2007 Malawi Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report. Registered as a Trust under the Trustees Act of Malawi, TECS projects have taken what it calls “a poverty reduction strategy approach” to improve food security, water safety and HIV/AIDS intervention and education.

The trust has built schools, planted trees and constructed shallow wells to address the use of child labor in tobacco farming, according to TECS Programs Director Limbani Kakhome.

While not directly undermining child labor, these programs will eventually bear fruit in better social conditions that will diminish the problem, Kakhome said.

“We are also addressing health issues to ensure that the children don't skip school because of illnesses,” says Kakhome. Once they stay home because they are ill, they are easily taken up by child labor.” It is difficult, he said, to supply the market for child labor once the children are absorbed into the school system, have safe water and are financially secure.

Too Little, Too Late?

It is too late for children like 15-year-old Martha Kalima who dropped out of school at 12 years old to work in the tobacco fields. Pregnant at 14, she continued working in the fields until she gave birth. The father was the 16-year-old son of another tenant farmer.

“There is nothing like maternity leave for tobacco workers,” Kalima said. “No one is entitled to sick leave nor is there transport to hospital. I gave birth at home because it was too late for me to get to hospital.”

Martha is back in the tobacco fields carrying the baby on her back. Chances are slim that she will return to school.

Some 15 percent of girls and 12 percent of boys drop out of school, according to Malawi government statistics. Around 22 percent of primary school age girls never attend school at all, while 60 percent of those enrolled do not attend regularly.

The TECS corporate newsletter confirms that children with few options are pulled from school. Some are “coaxed from the poverty-stricken homes to work in order to keep body and soul together. They are exposed to hazardous environments where they work long hours and do jobs not befitting their ages and they are often beaten and abused.”

That was the fate of 16-year-old Ekari Maliwasa, says she has just returned to her village in the south of Malawi after working for five years in the tobacco estates in the northern part of the country.

“My parents took me with them to work in the tobacco estates in the north [when I was 11] and I only escaped back to my village two months ago after realizing that I was being abused. I am now staying with my elderly grandmother,” says Maliwasa. She says the estate manager beat her whenever he found her resting from the hard work in the tobacco fields. Ekari also went without food or drink for long hours, she said, and was not allowed take a break until she had worked for five hours.

Enforcement of Labor Standards Difficult

Maliwasa's treatment, like that endured by many of Malawi's child laborers, violated not only international standards but also legally binding treaties. Malawi is a signatory to a number of conventions against child labor including the 1973 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 138 which sets a minimum working age of 18, and the 1999 ILO Convention 182 which outlaws child labor.

The country also ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (ILO has set 2016 as the deadline for countries around the world to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.)

Child labor cannot be ended overnight says TECS Executive Director Bobby Maynard. “You can manage the supply chain to a certain degree but you can't control it fully,” he says. “The problem is that over 80 percent of tobacco is grown with no contracts from the tobacco companies -- as such it is difficult to intervene directly.”

Tobacco companies note that they are involved in policing child labor violations at estates where they have direct control, and that they subscribe to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), whose first principle is “no child labor.” But their results in curbing the practice have not been impressive.

Relying on British American Tobacco's own internal documents, the University of California study found that, “rather than actively and responsibly working to solve the problem of child labor in growing tobacco, the company acted to co-opt the issue to present themselves over as a 'socially responsible corporation' by releasing a policy statement claiming the company's commitment to end harmful child labor practices, holding a global child labor conference with trade unions and other key stakeholders, and contributing nominal sums of money for development projects largely unrelated to efforts to end child labor.”

International agencies are also involved. Kusali Kubwalo, communications officer for UNICEF Malawi, said the United Nations has joined Malawi's government and several non-governmental organizations to fight the problem from several fronts.

A national “Stop Child Abuse Campaign” aims to break the silence shrouding all forms of child abuse, including child labor.

“The campaign aims to mobilize leadership and a commitment at all levels to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse,” says Kubwalo. “Violations of children's rights take place every day in Malawi and are extensive, under-recognized and underreported.”

She insists that Malawi, as a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obligated to respect, protect, facilitate and promote the fulfillment of the rights it guarantees.

“This instrument must therefore be translated into concrete legislation, interventions and development programs,” says Kubwalo. “Ratification alone is not enough.”

REPORT 1 OF 2. PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 17, 2007

Chad. For the first time, a group of victims manages to bring an African ex-dictator to trial

(Translated from Spanish) 

Isabel Coello, Special correspondent to N’Djamena

Clément Abaifuta prays everyday that Chadian ex-dictator Hissène Habré lives. “I tell myself that it would be a great injustice if God allowed Habré to die before being tried.” Clément Abaifuta remembers perfectly the date of his detention and that of his release: “On July 12, 1985, they arrested me. My crime was having obtained a scholarship to study abroad. I was released on March 3, 1989.” And he remembers every detail of his captivity. “50 of us lived in 16 square meters at a temperature of 50 degrees, and we did our business there inside. I was in charge of burying my prison mates who died in custody; I buried thousands in mass graves, between seven and ten each day.” Today, Clément Abaifuta leads the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression, an organization that brings together 2,000 victims of the dictatorship of Hissène Habré and has achieved something unheard of in Africa: managing to get a trial against the Chadian ex-president to be prepared.

Habré ruled Chad by force between 1982 and 1990, when he was overthrown by the current president Iddris Déby. The dictator fled to Senegal, where has lived in exile ever since. A Truth Commission created after his escape accused Habré of 40,000 political killings and of systematically practicing torture.

In all likelihood, Habré counted on enjoying the same placid existence in Senegal that many African tyrants have lived after their escape abroad: Ugandan Idi Amin wanted for nothing during his exile in Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003, and Ethiopian Mengistu Haile Mariam still lives comfortably in Zimbabwe.

The fact of the matter is that, unknowingly, Judge Garzón, calling for the extradition of Chilean Augusto Pinochet from the United Kingdom in 1998, ruined the plans of the Chadian dictator.

“When Judge Garzón requested Pinochet’s extradition, human rights organizations considered it an admonishment to many of the world’s tyrants that they could see what could one day happen to them. In reality, the Pinochet case actually meant a real wake-up call for victims associations, which realized that they could use international law to prosecute people who seemed to be beyond the reach of Justice,” explains Reed Brody, of the Human Rights Watch organization (HRW).

“Our lawsuit was inspired by the Pinochet case,” Jacqueline Moudeina, the attorney of the Chadian victims, admits with pride. With support from the HRW and the International Federation for Human Rights, 17 victims filed suit in January of 2000 in a Senegal court. They based themselves on the Convention against Torture, ratified by the country, which binds the signatories to prosecute any torturer in their territory.

So began the long struggle to bring to trial one of the Africa’s lesser known tyrants, but whose regime killed at least 1,208 people in jail and abused another 12,000, as shown by the 2,000 recently discovered files of the Documentation and Security Directorate, the secret police created by Habré.

Senegalese Justice got out of the way, and in March of 2001, the Court of Appeals confirmed that the courts of that country did not have jurisdiction over the crimes of which Habré was accused because the Convention against Torture had not been incorporated in domestic legislation.

The victims did not give up. “We went to Belgium and, using the universal jurisdiction law, which was in effect in the country at that time, we filed the lawsuit there.” There were already 20 plaintiffs, and three of them Belgian nationals of Chadian origin.

Belgian judge Francois Fransen investigated the matter for five years, travelled to Chad, visited mass graves and interviewed victims of all kinds. In 2005, he accused Habré of crimes against humanity and other abuses of human rights and asked Senegal to extradite him to Belgium to be tried.

Senegal arrested him, but its Justice ruled again that it wasn’t “competent” to rule on the request for extradition, and this time it passed the ball to the African Union (AU), asking it to decide which jurisdiction should try the case.

After appointing a committee of experts to analyze the mater, the General Assembly of the AU ordered Senegal to try Habré in its territory, after making the appropriate amendments to its national laws.

“That decision was already a milestone: that an assembly on which notorious tyrants like the president of Zimbabwe or the president of Sudan are seated would order Habré to be tried, knowing very well that one day it could be their turn,” remarks Brody.

Since then, Senegal has been preparing for the trial. It has changed its law, eliminated the jury, introduced the crimes against humanity and the possibility of appealing, in order to ensure that Habré has a fair trial. A mission from the European Union must soon travel to the country to study what the trial will cost and what financial aid it can give.

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has shown in a letter “the full support of the Spanish Government for Habré’s trial,” a process that he deems “of great importance for the strengthening of the Rechtsstaat, the fight against impunity and the defense of human rights in Africa.”

If Habré comes to be seated on the bench, it will be the first time that the national courts of a developing country prosecute mass abuses against human rights. And unlike the case of other African dictators, like the Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor, who is being tried by the International Court of Sierra Leone, the victims themselves will have been the ones who have brought him to answer for his actions.

“The regime considered the victims to be subhuman. In order for them to regain their dignity, justice must be served,” says attorney Jacqueline Moudeina. She knows very well that there are many people who do not want to see Habré tried: in 2001, she suffered an attack that severely injured one of her legs. “Many people who were in positions of responsibility with Habré continue to be in power today,” Moudeina indicates.

But since she became an attorney, she wanted to lead this case and does not plan on abandoning ship. “Impunity makes the State disappear. Trying Habré would be showing that you can’t violate and kill as though it were nothing,” she insists.

Before the trial begins, Senegal will have to do its own investigation, whereby the process may easily be delayed another year.

“The problem is that time goes by and many victims are dying. If we wait much longer, I wonder how many victims will remain alive when the trial begins,” laments Abaifuta.

For many like him, the wounds of torture are far from having healed. “I saw Habré again in Senegal during his extradition sessions. I cried like a boy,” he recalls. “Only on the day I see him on the stand will I be completely healed.”

IN FIRST PERSON

Ginette Ndjarbaye

43 years old. Detained when she was two months pregnant, she was tortured and gave birth in prison

I was engaged in 1985. It was my fiancé who convinced me to study professional training, and I came to the capital to do secretarial work.

On January 16, they detained me. I was at home resting when they came looking for me. I was two months pregnant. I did not have any link with politics. They told me that they were taking me to the Documentation and Security Directorate to ask me a few questions, that it was not “anything serious.” When I arrived, I went in a room where there was a man. His shirt was covered in bloodstains. I asked him what I was being charged with. He told me that he was accusing me of having met with members of the opposition in Cameroon. I had only been to Cameroon once in my life, and it had only been to the market.

They brought me to a room full of instruments of torture. They tortured me for eight nights. Especially with electric shock. I still have the marks, like this one on my chest. They also raped me. I think it was three times, but I am not sure, because I lost consciousness, but when I awoke, I had semen on my underwear.

Then they transferred me to the prison. My daughter Annie was born there in September of ’86. I gave birth on the floor, helped by a woman. They released me on February 10, 1987. When he found out about my release, my fiancé came to see me. He told me that he had looked for me everywhere and thought that I had died. He had married another woman. I married another man, with whom I had another two children.

To this day, no one has ever told me why they detained me. 20 years have gone by, but I have not forgotten. It is unforgettable. It is not normal to arrest people at will; there is no justice in this country. Our fight is to get Habré to answer for his actions. What he did is inhumane. In the neighborhood, I still pass by the one who came to detain me; he looks the other way. Not the torturer, however; he died years ago. We want justice. Without justice, there is no forgiveness. I cannot forgive until they explain to me why they detained me. My hope is to see him tried.

Younous Mahadjir

55 years old. Accused of belong to a rebel group, he spent four months in prison, where he lost 30 kilos.

They arrested me on August 17, 1990. I was 30 years old, married with three children. I was a radiology technician. Two policemen came looking for me at the hospital.

I was a unionist, from the center of the country, where there was a rebellion against authority. They accused me of collusion with the rebellion and of preparing a conspiracy. I went to prison. They tortured me there. At night, they tied me up to ask me who my accomplices were. They put the wheel of a car on my stomach and make me drink water until I lost consciousness, while I was peeing myself all over the room. When you woke up, they would begin again. It continued like this until you confessed to being a member of the rebellion. I never did so, because I wasn’t. They tortured me this way twice.

Life in the cell was very hard; there were many people and it was very hot. I had no contact with my family. And we were dying of hunger. My dreams in jail were images in which I saw myself eating. Upon leaving, on December 1, 1990, when Habré fled, I weight 45 kilos; I had lost 30. I always thought that I should resist. I was convinced that the horror would end one day. The physical suffering goes away, but the mental damage…I will never forgive it.

The process for trying Habré is getting very long, and we are losing hope. We believe that the current Chadian system does not want him to be tried. It is hard to see the people responsible back then still in positions of command today. Habré’s accomplices remain in Chad. They are useful for the system. Meanwhile, no one is concerned for the victims. Last year one of the prisoners died who they ordered to make holes where they threw the people that they killed. He died of a mild liver ailment that is curable, but he did not have the means. In this process, I believe that, with our determination, we will win. For the health of Chad, for it to be greater as a country, it must be achieved. I am convinced that it will happen. But it must be done while Habré lives. The more time that goes by, the more likely it will be to say that he is ill or mentally incapable.

Kongarde Hawa

40 years old. Lost his father and brother. They were of the Hadjarai ethnicity, among the most persecuted by the regime

The military came at night. Several vehicles parked at the door of the house. It must have been in 1985; I do not remember it well. A civilian man came in the house. He said that he wanted to see Mamat, my little brother. He did not give us any explanation as to why they were looking for him. My brother was a student; he was twenty-something years old. That day he had gone to the hospital to see some people who were ill, and he was on his return from the hospital when they came for him. They took him away. I never saw him again.

During that time, when they came looking for my brother, my father was already arrested. He was military and died in prison. We know this because when Hissène was overthrown and fled the country, all those who were in jail and did not return home were considered dead, and my father did not return. He had been detained during the Hadjarai massacres; there were collective detainments. During the time of Habré, there were many deaths of that ethnicity, and many members of the association of victims of repression are Hadjarai.

I do not have the slightest hope of finding the bodies of my father and my brother. Later, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DSD, secret police of the dictatorship) published a few lists of people who had died, and my brother was on one of these, but they never told us where his body was. For us, it is difficult not to have been able to find them and give them a proper burial. We think of them every day. When I am eating, when I am walking, I think of them.

If they try Habré, it will provide us with a certain amount of relief. I want him to suffer like he has made our loved ones suffer. I would like to look him in the eyes and torture him. I would like them to crucify him the same way they crucified Jesus Christ. I am very pleased with the trial that is being prepared in Senegal. It is what I want. For him to be tried.

Chad is different today. My children move about the city and nobody bothers them. I do not think that something similar to what happened during the time of Habré could happen again today.

Abakar Ousman

37 years old. Recruited to the force by armed group opposed to Habré, he was a prisoner of war

I was arrested in 1983 as a prisoner of war, since I was a combatant of the FAP, one of the armed groups that had fought against Habré since 1979 in the north of the country. They had recruited us by force. I did not want to fight, because I am a believer and I know that killing is not right, but they forced us. There were more than 1,000 of us prisoners of war, and more than 150 were executed. They came one day and took away two or three that we never saw again.

The conditions of imprisonment were very harsh. We were beaten, interrogated and tortured, but the worst of it all was the hunger. Fifty-two prisoners died of hunger before us all. We ate the leaves of the trees. The International Committee of the Red Cross came to inspect the prison. After that visit, the situation improved. It is thanks to them and to God that I am alive today.

I was released by an agreement that Habré signed with the FAP in 1989. Many joined his army; I returned home and survived with something of a business. When I left, I was in very poor condition. I had lost my sight, and they had applied torture to my testicles. I do not even know how long the interrogations last. When you are suffering, you do not count the time. If they were happy with your answers, they left you alone; if not, they continued.

Today I live with normalcy, but I have friends that suffer and are in poor mental condition. Even so, I think about what happened every day. I want the trial to come. I do not mind making a statement as a witness. I am not afraid. Afraid of what? If God saved us from that, there is nothing to fear. I want to stand before Habré and hear what he says. I want to hear his reasons why he did what he did. That would relieve us. I would like them to sentence him to death like they did to Saddam Hussein, but if that does not happen, I will be satisfied with the fact that they tried him. We will continue with this process until the end. Justice is peace. Where there is justice, there is peace. Unfortunately, today in Chad there is impunity, even though it is in a more hidden form.

REPORT 2 OF 2. PUBLISHED JULY 27, 2008

Two years after the African Union ordered the country to prosecute Hissène Habré, almost no progress has been made

ISABEL COELLO, special correspondent - DAKAR

“I spent six months in a cell jam-packed with more than a hundred people. We lived among our own excrement, which was piled up in a corner. The heat was unbearable. Two or three people died each day.” Senegalese Abdourahmane Gueye never thought he would see the man who caused his suffering seated on a court bench.

 Abdourahmane Gueye, Senegalese victim of Chadian ex-dictator Hissène Habré, trusts that he will ultimately be tried.

62 years old, married with six children, this merchant is one of the two Senegalese victims who, 20 years ago, was detained without charges by the regime then in power in Chad. In command was a man named Hissène Habré. When he was deposed in 1990, Habré fled to Senegal, where he has lived placidly ever since.

“I was detained when I crossed from the Central African Republic to Chad. I was going to sell jewels to French soldiers who were stationed in Chad. They detained my friend and companion Demba along with me. I never saw him alive again,” Gueye recounts.

Gueye was lucky, and mediation from former Senegalese president Abdou Diouf led to his release. Thousands of Chadians, however, suffered torture and inhumane treatment in the prisons of Habré. Abandoned documents from the former Security Directorate and discovered by the Human Rights Watch organization (HRW) confirm the death of 1,208 people in prison. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated the number of political killings at 40,000.

Today Gueye has the chance to dream of seeing his torturer appear before a court, a privilege that the majority of victims of abuses inflicted by African dictators have not had. Gueye forms part of the group of victims who have filed suit against Hissène Habré and, after a six-year struggle, got the African Union to demand that Senegal prosecute him in 2006. That was two years ago, however, and Dakar is not moving to prepare the trial at the speed that the victims would like.

“We are not at all satisfied. There is a lot of political grandstanding and few specific actions. Meanwhile, there are victims of Habré who die every day without seeing justice served,” Demba Ciré Bathily, the victims’ attorney, tells Público.

“We do not understand how it takes three years to carry out a minimal legal reform,” he says in reference to the Constitutional amendment, finally approved last Wednesday, to allow Senegalese courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed in the past.

“We are wondering if Senegal has the political will to try him or if it is toying with the international community. Our impression is that they are stalling for time. In fact, in Habré’s camp, they do not believe there will ever be a trial,” Bathily complains.

“Senegal has perfected the art of delaying this case,” states Alioune Tine, of the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights. “This case is a test for African justice. Africa cannot complain that international justice is being baited with African leaders while it allows Habré’s case to languish in Senegal.”

If Habré is ever tried, it would be the first time that a lawsuit filed by African victims sees a dictator seated on the bench. Attorney Bathily insists on the importance of this process: “Africa has never fought against impunity. It is the only continent where dictators have escaped punishment and enjoyed a luxurious retirement, with the sole exception of the ex-president of Liberia, Charles Taylor [currently on trial before the International Criminal Court for Sierra Leone],” the attorney explains. “Therefore, this case would send a strong message to the world that Africa wants to put an end to impunity,” Bathily remarks.

“For two years, the process has moved very slowly,” agrees Reed Brody, of the HRW. “The Government inflated the budget for the trial: it asked for 66 million euros, when we estimate that it may cost 28 million,” Brody explains. A team from the European Union that visited Senegal last January to evaluate the financial needs stemming from the trial for the purpose of disbursing economic aid, asked Senegal to redo the budget.

“We remain cautious,” says Stéphanie Masure, in charge of the matter in the Delegation of the European Commission in Dakar. “In one way or another, we will support the efforts to try Habré, but we need to know what it is that we can or cannot support. Right now, the conditions for us to be able to request financial aid are not met,” she explains.

With the approval of the constitutional amendment last Wednesday, any obstacle to trying Habré has been eliminated. Now, at least, preliminary proceedings on the case may begin. However, at least another year may pass before this is completed and gives way to the hearing. There are other troublesome factors. The current Senegalese minister of Justice, Madické Niang, is Habré’s former attorney.

“The documents are there. The evidence is there,” Brody notes. “Delaying justice,” he concludes, “is to deny justice.”

SALLY CHIWAMA, Zambia correspondent - Women News Network - WNN

A sex-safety school poster for students in Lusaka, Zambia. Image: Joshua Treviño

Lusaka, Zambia - In Feb 2006, only three months before the Zambian government ratified the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, a young girl student was calculatingly raped by her greatest authority figure, her own school teacher.

The minor and her guardian sued the teacher, along with the school and the Zambian Ministry of Education one year later, achieving a first ever court victory in Zambia on June 30, 2008.

During the case presiding Judge, Philip Musonda, made his assessment in the High Court of Lusaka. “The government is responsible for all school going children in the care of its agents — such as teachers, school authorities and any other person in it’s employment during the time the schools are in session,” he said. The case brought a K45m award (approx $13,000+ USD and $45million Zambian Kwacha) to the plaintiff, a girl who was only 13 at the time of the crime.

According to a CARI – Children at Risk in Ireland Foundation - 2006 report, Submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection, “Perpetrator psychological rehabilitation is an extremely important prevention strategy; for example, a sexual aggressor who begins abusing during adolescence and is not rehabilitated is estimated to commit an average of 380 sexual offences during his lifetime.”

13 yr old Kalenga Mutale (not her real name) was like all children and pupils who idolize their teachers. When she was about to begin work on her ninth grade final exams, she innocently asked her instructor if she could see her past test papers. “Conveniently,” Kalenga’s teacher, Edward Hakasenke, forgot the papers, even after being asked more than three times. When it suited him, he told the girl to “come and get them from his home” after class.

In innocence, Kalenga followed instructions and went to her teacher’s home. There she found him listening to music. After being asked to “take a seat,” Kalenga, was told she needed to go and get her test papers from another room. Unfortunately, she followed instructions again to gather her papers from the other room. Even though she admitted in court that she was uncomfortable and scared in her teacher’s home.

When Kalenga went to go into the other room she froze in her feet. When she opened the curtain (in place of a door) she found she was looking into a bedroom. That’s when she turned to go back but “Teacher” was standing in her way blocking her from passing as he began to tell Kalenga she was pretty and that he wanted to marry her.

The US Deptartment of Health and Human Services outlines the definition of sexual assault stating, “Sexual assault can be verbal, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention.”

Many girl-children, teens and young women do not know that sexual assault does include activity such as nonphysical verbal abuse as well.

A 2000 report on rape in neighboring South Africa by the Medical Research Council pointed to the seriousness of teacher-student rape and exploitation outlining, “Girls reported routine sexual harassment by teachers, as well as psychological coercion to engage in “dating relationships.” In some cases, girls acquiesced to sexual demands from teachers because of fears that they would be physically punished if they refused. In other cases, teachers abused their positions of authority by promising better grades or money in exchange for sex. In the worst cases, teachers operated within a climate of seeming entitlement to sexual favors from students. A medical research study found that among those South African rape victims who specified their relationship to the perpetrator, 37.7 percent said a schoolteacher or principal had raped them.”

Terrified, Kalenga asked her teacher what he was doing. Instead of an answer she was pushed on the bed. Before she knew it she went blank and tried to scream, but her assailant put his hands firmly over her mouth.

Like so many survivors of sexual assault, Kalenga was told, in the face of this crime, that she was not to tell anyone - or else. If she did she would be chased from school and her “Teacher” would lose his job.

When she went home Kalenga told no one. Not even her Auntie who is her legal guardian. Alone with no one to turn to, she soon realized she was hurting and itching and beginning to show signs of disease. Alone and silent, she decided to go to a clinic, got examined and was diagnosed and given medicine.

Once there she still remained silent and told no one, but in a bout of courage and fear she went to tell “Teacher” of her condition and health treatment.

In response, he scolded her saying, “How come I am not getting sick myself?”.

The situation on its own was not getting any better.

The silent young girl did not know what to do or where to go. Finally, in an act of desperation she decided to tell the Deputy Headmaster of her school what had happened. To her surprise the Headmaster already knew the whole story.

He knew what had been going on because he had been a roommate, sharing a house with Kalenga’s “Teacher.”

It was then it was decided. Enough was enough. There must be an end to this.

As the trauma started sinking in, Kalenga’s performance in school started dwindling. This is a common occurrence for children who have been abused by authority figures at school.

Once a very good student at school, Kalenga started getting low marks. The children at school in Kalenga’s class, who began hearing about her struggle, started talking about Kalenga behind her back. Her friends bullied her. Some would even write notes to her telling her she was a “bad” girl. Others said she was lying. Others blamed her for spreading school rumors, saying that she was falsely accusing her teacher.

“It was really traumatizing for me,” said Kalenga in a recent interview for Women News Network. “My friends were bullying me and telling me that I was just making up this whole thing. That I just wanted to put the teacher in trouble. Many days I would go home crying,” said added.

CAMFED, an international NGO which started in 1993, is dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women. Using a platform of “Education for all,” CAMFED has recently released the “Child Protection Policy” (updated April 2008) recognizing that, “girls are especially vulnerable to abuse and that they require special protection.”

All of Zambia’s children deserve safety in educational environments.
Photo image: US Embassy, Zambia / Lubuto Library Project Opening

“Empowering girls is the foundation for enabling them to be less vulnerable to abuse of any kind. A key element of our programme policy is that girls develop the confidence to reduce their exposure to abusive situations,” states CAMFED in its policy talking points.

The responsibility for education leaders in Zambia to insure the safety of its students has finally been brought to the public in Kalenga’s case. Many times girls abused by an authority figure from their school, or by school mates, stop attending school all together after they have experienced their abuse. The hardest part is that assistance for their suffering goes unattended as they often remain silent.

After facing her struggle alone, Kalenga tried to tell her Auntie what had happened but she couldn’t. It was then her headmaster put her to task and told her that if she didn’t tell immediately he would tell her aunt himself.

Scared, without knowing what would happen next, Kalenga went to a pay phone. She dialed her home number. Her aunt answered. When she tried to speak tears made Kalenga’s throat swell. The words just would not come.

On hearing this, Kalenga’s headmaster at school quickly picked up the phone and spoke to Kalenga’s “Auntie” himself urging her to listen to what her niece had to tell her as soon as she came home.

When Kalenga arrived home her “Auntie” was waiting pensively for her.

After hearing Kalenga’s story she said later, “I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t know what to do. The first thing that came to my mind was to confront the teacher at school.”

As part of a Nov 2006 YWCA Zambia campaign, “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence,” a report outlined an alarming statistic. An average of eight cases of girl-rape per week was revealed coming into the YWCA centre in Lusaka for help.

Teacher-student abuse has now been found to be a hidden and significant contributor to this statistic.

A 2002 Human Rights Watch investigation in Zambia found that Zambian teachers all too frequently have placed certain girl-students in positions resulting in exploitation. This exploitation is dependent on non-disclosure by the perpetrators as well as the survivors of abuse.

“Sexual abuse and exploitation in school environments was all too frequent. Some of the perpetrators were teachers who prey on vulnerable girls, exchanging answers to tests or higher grades for sex. Most abuses by teachers are not reported, and few teachers are penalized. A more typical outcome is that the teacher is cautioned and possibly transferred.

In some cases, parents negotiate for the teacher to marry the girl. Advocates for girls’ education have tried to get stiffer penalties against teachers who abuse students, and to ensure that those found responsible are dismissed. However, the onus is on the girl’s parents, not the school, to report the case to the police so criminal charges can be made.

School administrators sometimes interfere with the process by transferring the teachers elsewhere, which makes it extremely difficult for the case to proceed,” said Human Rights Watch in their 2002 report, “Suffering in Silence: The Links between Human Rights Abuses and HIV Transmission to Girls in Zambia.”

The next morning, Aunt and niece decided to go school to make a formal report to the Headmaster. A meeting was called. The Headmaster, another senior teacher and Kalenga’s teacher, Edward Hakasenke, were present at the meeting with Kalenga and her aunt.

The Headmaster told Kalenga’s Aunt that he could not blame the girl for anything that happened as she was a minor. He reminded Kalenga’s teacher of a previous relationship he also had with another of his students. When the Edward Hakasenke was asked if he felt Kalenga was a “girlfriend,” he answered in the affirmative. The headmaster then asked him if he knew how old the girl was when the incident allegedly occurred and if he committed the rape. The teacher admitted that he thought the girl was 14 years old, but would not answer the last question.

Verifying in court “Teacher” did testify that, yes, he knew Kalenga. He said that she was his pupil. But he denied any sexual assault.

He testified that Kalenga had started spreading rumors that she was his girlfriend. Adding that on Valentines Day, the young girl followed him with a bunch of flowers along with some chocolate and a card. But, he tried to avoid her as he realized that the whole thing would get him in trouble. He said that the young girl requested to talk to him on several occasions but he had declined.

He also said that the girl wanted to have a relationship with him but he declined. However, on cross examination in court, Kalenga’s teacher admitted that Kalenga did not proposition him. He admitted that he called the girl his “girlfriend” because he thought there was a relationship.

On June 30, 2008 the High Court of Zambia released a verdict of guilty to Kalenga’s teacher, Edward Hakasenke.

In concluding remarks Judge Philip Musonda outlined the reasons he chose “guilty” in the court decision:

“A teacher has moral superiority over his pupils. A girl saying that she loved a teacher does not mean that she consented to sex, when she is below 16 years of age. This teacher manipulated the girl by deliberately forgetting her past examination papers in order to create an opportunity to sexually abuse her at his home. There can be no consent by a child under 16 years of age.

To characterize a (child’s) valentine card as consenting, is legally, morally and psychologically flawed. Such a person (who interprets a young girl this way) undermines section 138 of the (Zambian) penal code. It is contrary to the ethics of a teacher to sleep with school girls. It is psychologically wrong. A child under 16 is not cognitively developed enough to consent to sex.

When children are left at school a teacher becomes a parent. The standard of care, managed by a headmaster of a school, is one of a careful father toward his own children.

The chances of millions of girls being infected with a (HIV/AIDS) ‘death sentence’ by unscrupulous teachers and/or headmasters cannot go unabated. Diseases (in Zambia) such as HIV/AIDS, have no cure.”

Zambia belongs to the world

As legislative solutions are coming into focus in Zambia, factors to reduce the incidence of teacher/student abuse are moving forward.

A 2000 World Health Organization – Geneva report, “World Report on Violence and Health (Chap 6 - Sexual Violence)” states, “Action in schools is vital for reducing sexual and other forms of violence. In many countries a sexual relation between a teacher and a pupil is not a serious disciplinary offence and policies on sexual harassment in schools either do not exist or are not implemented. In recent years, though, some countries have introduced laws prohibiting sexual relations between teachers and pupils. Such measures are important in helping eradicate sexual harassment in schools. At the same time, a wider range of actions is also needed, including changes to teacher training and recruitment and reforms of curricula, so as to transform gender relations in schools.”

With a verdict of guilty, the High Court of Zambia awarded Kalenga and her guardian aunt $13,000+ USD (equal to $45,000,000 in Zambia) for damages.

“I want to ensure that such a situation does not happen to any child, because the emotional scars do not heal,” said Kalenga’s “Auntie” who fought closely by Kalenga’s side in court.

Thankfully, Kalenga was also told after testing by the clinic she did not have HIV/AIDS.

“I feel like a hero for coming out in the open because most girls tend to keep quiet when such things happen to them,” said Kalenga. “I want to urge young girls not to trust any strangers and to report any cases of sexual abuse against them,” she added.

“We Zambians, especially activists, must translate this landmark judgment, with clear illustrations, cartoons and posters, into simple English and the seven official local languages (of Zambia) so that every person who can read or see learns from it,” said Zambian gender activist Sara Longwe, in a recent call to protect girls reproductive and sexual rights.

“Now I am my own ambassador,” said Kalenga, “because now I am a role model. Some girls even come to me for advice. Like the girl from school who came and told me that her uncle had defiled her and asked me what she should do. I advised her to tell a family member or see her pastor at church right away.”

“This judgment (also) protects the girl-child from the sexual abuse that customarily follows enforced child marriages,” added Ugandan attorney, Laura Nyirikindi, soon after learning the outcome of the case. “Women’s NGOs now have a precedent which they can use to lobby for legal and policy reform,” she explained. “Errant staff suspensions (inside the schools) is not enough. More in-depth measures have to be taken, especially preventative ones.”

“I also tell my friends not to trust any strangers. That they should speak out when something of that sort happens,” added Kalenga.

“We value education and as such will not take kindly to any girl being stripped of her right to education and a secured bright future,” said YWCA Director, Ktembu Kaumba. “The teaching profession is a noble one and all bad eggs must be removed from the education sector and exposed. The message we are sending is a zero tolerance one.”

“We have to fight this scourge together because a potential defiler can be anywhere, at school or at home,” added Kalenga with a big smile on her face.

A large question still remains as the Zambian public realizes what this landmark case really means. Will stronger legislation be supported throughout Zambia’s governing committees to help limit teacher-student abuse in the future? Will this case cause parents and guardians of abused children to begin to sue the Ministry of Education itself at increased levels?

The biggest question yet to be answered is: Will Zambia’s Ministry of Education pay for all upcoming defilement cases or will they put measures in place to curb this “vice” inside the education sector before it hits the courts?

Even with a landmark case like this winning in court, Zambia may have much more to go before teacher-student rape cases show a sharp decline.