Chad's former despot Hissène Habré is allowed to move freely in Dakar while he awaits trial for human rights abuses.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's highest court, dismissed a Belgian bid Thursday to force Senegal to keep the former dictator under surveillance until he is tried for torturing and killing opponents during his rule.

The court says it is satisfied with Dakar's assurances that it had no intention of letting Habré go.

Belgium had sought a quick ruling by the court to stop Habré from leaving Senegal while it tries to force Senegal to either try or extradite him, "so that he can answer for his crimes."

Brussels charged Habré in 2005 with crimes against humanity and torture but took the case to The Hague because Senegal is failing to prosecute the former Chadian despot.

Pending that decision, which could take several years, Belgium also asked the court in April to issue provisional measures to force Senegal to keep Habré under surveillance.

Belgian lawyers had argued that Habré was likely to go into hiding if Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade carried out reported threats to lift his house arrest unless funds required for a trial are found.

Millstone

The Habré case has been a millstone round the neck of the Senegalese authorities.

A group of Habré's victims went to court in Dakar in 2000. The former dictator was indicted and put under house arrest. But the court dismissed the case in 2001, saying the case was outside its jurisdiction.

The victims then turned to Belgium, where universal jurisdiction laws allow the prosecution of crimes committed elsewhere. But despite a 2005 international arrest warrant, Senegal has refused to extradite Habré.

In 2007, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade pledged to try Habré in Senegal "on behalf of Africa." But despite amendments to the law allowing its courts to prosecute past crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes, Senegal has so far not begun any legal proceedings.

On 15 August 2008, in separate proceedings in Chad, a court in N'Djaména tried Hissène Habré in absentia and sentenced him to death for backing an armed rebellion against the current Chadian government.

Habré's legacy

Hissène Habré (1942), also dubbed the 'African Pinochet', ruled Chad from 1982 until current President Idriss Déby deposed him in 1990.

In 1992, a Chadian truth commission detailed Habré's responsibility for 40,000 politically motivated murders and 200,000 cases of torture and ethnic cleansing during his rule.