US embassy cable - 05NDJAMENA559

UNCLAS  NDJAMENA 000559 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/C, DRL AND AF/PD - DON WITHMAN 
STATE PASS USAID/DCHA 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
ACCRA FOR USAID/WARP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM, EAID, CD, LY, PJUS, Human RIghts 
SUBJECT: EXECUTIVE INTERFERENCE AND REPRISALS UNDERMINE 
CHAD'S JUSTICE SECTOR 
 
 
1. (U) Summary: In an apparent act of reprisal for their 
refusal to hand down the ruling favored by the Executive 
branch in a long-disputed property sale case, the Minister 
of Justice has demoted and reassigned the three Appeals 
Court justices involved in the case.  The Union of 
Magistrates, the Chadian Bar Association, and the National 
Union of Clerks of the Court closed the courts with a three- 
day protest strike.  A group of senior magistrates and 
attorneys told us they saw this as the latest in a series of 
actions further weakening Chadian justice.  They made some 
concrete recommendations for donor support to strengthen the 
justice sector. End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) On March 29 a focus group of experienced Chadian 
judges, attorneys, and court officers met for lunch at the 
DCM's residence to discuss recent patterns of interference 
in the independence of Chad's judiciary. 
 
A MINISTER'S LETTER TRUMPS AN APPEALS COURT RULING 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
3. (SBU) In apparent disregard of a March 4 Appeals Court 
ruling that resolved a long-disputed real estate sale 
(Lafico vs. Yacoub) in favor of the Chadian buyer of the 
building, the Minister of Justice directed that police evict 
the buyer from the property.  The Minister had earlier tried 
to influence the Appeals Court to impose wildly inflated 
damages and interest on the buyer, in order to place him 
under financial pressure to cede the building to the Libyan 
foreign investment firm that lost the case, according to the 
Chadian Union of Magistrates.  The President of the Appeals 
Court told us he refused the Minister's urging as improper. 
In what appears to be a reprisal, a Ministerial Decree dated 
March 11 ordered the President of the Appeals Court demoted 
by two grades, and reassigned to the provinces the two 
experienced Appeals Court judges who advised him in the 
case.  The Appeals Court Procurer General who signed the 
March 7 order instructing the Police and Internal Security 
to proceed with the eviction has now been named as the new 
President of the Appeals court, according to GOC-influenced 
daily newspaper Le Progrs. 
 
4. (U) The recently reassigned President of the Appeals 
Court, who has participated in the Embassy's Justice focus 
group for the past two years, described the Minster's 
actions as "without precedent in the history of the Chadian 
Judiciary."   The Union of Magistrates met in plenary and 
declared a three-day protest strike March 22-24.  The 
Chadian Bar and the National Union of Clerks of the Court 
joined the judges, effectively closing the courts for the 
duration of the strike. 
 
THE "HOLLOWING OUT" OF CHAD'S JUDICIARY 
--------------------------------------- 
5. (U) The focus group viewed the Minister of Justice's 
recent actions as part of a pattern of Executive Branch 
interference meant to weaken and corrupt the Justice sector. 
In early 2004, for example, President Deby replaced via an 
unconstitutional Presidential Decree a sitting Supreme Court 
justice, Ahmed Bartchiret.  Since that time, the group said, 
the President had progressively replaced seasoned judges 
with selected recent graduates of the Ecole Nationale de 
l'Administration et de la Magistrature (ENAM - Chad's 
training facility for civil servants and the judiciary). 
These new judges had no courtroom or other legal experience, 
but they were reliable proponents of the ruling MPS party's 
political views, and were "pliable".  Nominations to high 
positions in the judicial system no longer followed the 
rules, according to the focus group. 
 
6. (U) The normal course of a junior magistrate's career 
begins at the lower court, then an assignment in the court 
of appeals, and finally, for the best judges, an assignment 
to the Supreme Court.  Nowadays it is common to see young 
ENAM graduates appointed immediately as judges to the 
Supreme Court.  The day-to-day functioning of courts 
throughout the country has been impeded by these junior 
judges' lack of appropriate experience and background for 
their positions.  Many of the "new breed" have made little 
effort to improve on their scanty knowledge, apparently 
believing that their political reliability guarantees them 
 
 
appointment to even higher positions regardless of their 
professional capabilities.  The group agreed that the new 
judges were characterized by a desire to get rich quickly 
and an unapologetic willingness to accept bribes.  Their 
increasingly brash presence was felt to constitute a danger 
to the legal profession in Chad. 
 
AN OPEN DOOR TO CORRUPTION 
-------------------------- 
7. (U) Lack of minimally adequate and regularly paid 
salaries remained "a door wide open to corruption", the 
group said.  As of the end of March, the Chadian Government 
was two to three months in arrears on salaries to employees 
of the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary.  With the 
exception of those whose amenability to bribes allows them 
to buy well-appointed houses and cars, magistrates have 
moved to the insecure city outskirts in search of cheaper 
housing, and most come to work on shared-ride motorcycle 
taxis.  This increases the vulnerability of judges and their 
families to neighborhood violence and the retribution of 
those they convict or who are disadvantaged by their 
rulings. 
 
8. (U) The Union of Chadian Magistrates is the only non- 
Government professional organization representing judges in 
Chad.  The Union's resources are severely limited, since 
members' low salaries make membership dues a hardship.  The 
Union's President told the group he could barely keep the 
office operating, and is frequently without such basic 
supplies as pens and paper. 
 
BUILDING UP THE JUDICIARY 
------------------------- 
9. (U) Asked what kind of donor activities might make a 
difference in this situation, the group admitted that at 
least some of the new judges not only have the potential to 
become good judges but are also interested in improving. 
Such people need regular in-service training, and the basic 
wherewithal to do the job.   The focus group felt that the 
problem of "junior" magistrates assigned to posts for which 
they are not qualified would remain as long as the MPS was 
in power.  "That means we need to make the best of these 
people," said one judge.  "For better or worse, these are 
the people who will progressively replace the aging 
generation of magistrates, regardless of who runs Chad." 
 
10. (U) The group suggested concrete ways the U.S. or other 
donors could help to reinforce the justice sector: 
 
--Many courts lack the most basic legal reference documents 
including a copy of the Chadian Code.  This leads them to 
make improper decisions from ignorance or misunderstanding. 
 
--Judges do not presently have access to a widely accepted 
manual of procedure.  The presently out-of-print "Chadian 
Judiciary Manual" should be updated, published, and widely 
distributed by the Union of Magistrates or other competent 
group.  The few copies that still exist of this outdated 
reference are widely circulated among judges as the only 
available "cookbook" reference to Chadian judicial 
procedure. 
 
--New magistrates need specific "in-service training" to 
develop and maintain skills.   The Focus Group agreed to 
provide a list of specific types of training that would be 
most beneficial. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
11. (SBU) With regard to the disputed Appeals Court case, 
one opposition paper implied that the Minister of Justice 
was acting under Executive Branch pressure to resolve the 
million-dollar LAFICO case in favor of the defendant, the 
Libyan Finance Company.  It quoted a memo from the Minister 
of Justice to the Director of Internal Security as saying 
that the decision in the case "endangers the interests of 
the Chadian state."  The press report says that in 2003, 
then-Minister of Finance Idriss Ahmed Idriss wrote to the 
Minister of Justice that the Chadian state would reimburse 
LAFICO's more than USD 600,000 losses "in view of specific 
 
 
bilateral relations between Chad and Libya."  Although press 
reports on the LAFICO case avoid mentioning the Presidency 
by name, instructions to the Ministers of Justice and 
Finance involving hundreds of thousands of dollars could 
come only from President Deby.  The Appeals Court decision 
in the LAFICO case is evidence that, in the face of 
discouraging political conditions, many Chadian judges are 
still trying to act professionally.  We were pleased to be 
able to tell the group that a 2005 ESF project will provide 
a manual typewriter and a copy of the basic Chadian legal 
reference documents to every court, and that a small amount 
of funding was available for in-service or other training. 
Post will review the focus group's suggestions for possible 
consideration under PD Speaker or other USG assistance 
programming. 
 
 
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