Yearbook 2008
Senegal. In the spring of 2008, the protests that started
in November the year before continued against rising food
prices. On March 30, police launched tear gas at protesters
in Senegal's capital, Dakar, which sought to conduct a
protest march against deteriorating living conditions as a
result of continued food price increases. According to
Countryaah reports, the demonstration,
organized by consumer organizations, was attended by
opposition leaders such as Socialist Party leader Ousmane
Tanor Dieng.
On April 27, more than a thousand people carried out a
protest march in Dakar against the price increases without
the police intervening. The protesters carried on empty rice
sacks to show that the staple rice was becoming a luxury
commodity that fewer Senegalese could afford. The week
before, President Abdoulaye Wade had promised that the
country would become self-sufficient for staple goods in
2015 through a major investment in cereals, including a
fivefold increase in rice production. Currently, Senegal
exports its best rice, while the rice consumed by the
Senegalese largely has to be imported.
During the year, a lawsuit was prepared in Senegal
against the doomed former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré,
who since he was deposed in 1990 lives in a country escape
in Senegal. In April, the Senegalese Parliament amended the
constitution so that the country's courts can try crimes
committed in other countries and crimes committed over ten
years ago. In August, Habré, sometimes called Africa's
Pinochet, was sentenced in his absence for human rights
violations by a Chad court. The Senegalese authorities set
up a special court for the trial of the former dictator, but
at the same time Justice Minister Madicke Niang expressed
doubts about holding a lawsuit in the country when Habré was
already sentenced in Chad.
On a proposal from the ruling Senegal Democratic Party
(PDS), the National Assembly, where the PDS is in the
majority, voted in July for a legislative amendment to
extend the president's term of office from five years to
seven years. However, the constitutional amendment must be
approved by the Senate and the President in order to be
introduced. The new rules will only take effect in 2012 when
the current president, 82-year-old Abdoulaye Wade, will
leave his post. Some members of the opposition criticized
the proposal itself, but above all, the opposition was
opposed to the government party's way of introducing the
change in the law. They pointed out that such a fundamental
change should be approved in a referendum. Analysts suspect
that President Wade is training his son to take over for him
and that by extending the president's term, he is trying to
weaken political opponents.
On December 23-24, riots erupted in the mining town of
Kédougou in the southeastern part of the country. Young
people demonstrated against difficult living conditions and
attacked government buildings. When the police opened fire,
the vandalism worsened. A man, who according to witnesses
did not participate in the protests, was shot dead. About 30
people, most of them protesters, were injured. About 26
youths were arrested. A human rights organization has
accused the police of wrongfully arresting young people and
torturing them. After the rattles, many young people must
have moved out into the bush to escape the police.
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