Lawyers of the former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, have rejected the use of foreign funding to organise the trial of their client.

They argue that such a trial would not be fair because the funds would come mainly from Western countries, which have already condemned their client.

The rejection was made public in Dakar last week by the French Lawyer, François Serres who head's the former dictator's defence counsel made up of four other Senegalese lawyers.

Counsellor Serres' rejection stems from preparations allegedly being undertaken to renovate a court house in Dakar to hold the trial.

It can be recalled that a Dakar-based pan-African rights group last month appealed to the Senegalese leader and his African peers to facilitate the former dictator's trial.

Since that appeal, it is believed that some efforts were being made by the government of Senegal and the international community to host the trial in Dakar.

Counsellor Serres said any fund made available by the international community to facilitate the former dictator's trial will be considered as "price of his (Habré's) condemnation".

The French barrister accused some NGOs and apparently the Dakar-based rights group of "manipulating the victims" of the former dictator.

Habré lived freely in Senegal during the Socialist regime of President Abdou Diouf until 2000 when he was indicted by a Dakar court when President Abdoulaye Wade came to power.