- Nearly fifteen years after the fall of Chad's brutal Cold War dictator, Hissène Habré, dozens of his henchmen still hold positions of power in the country. During these years, the thousands of victims of torture and killings under President Habré's US-sponsored rule have never received compensation or recognition from Chad's current government. Mr Habré is still at large in Senegal.
Mr Habré, who fled Chad in December 1990, was indicted in Senegal in 2000 on charges of torture and crimes against humanity. However, Senegalese courts ruled that he could not be tried in the country, where he remains in exile. The ex-dictator now faces similar charges in Belgium, where a judge is pursuing an investigation that may lead to an extradition request.
In a report released by the US-based group Human Rights Watch today, it is documented that there little hope for the Habré regime's victims to achieve justice as many of the regime's henchmen still are in important positions in Chad. Some of those accused of torture and killings "still hold key posts in Chad, including top state security jobs," the group found.
Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who leads the international effort to prosecute Mr Habré, holds that the victims could one day witness the prosecution of the ex-dictator abroad, "but his henchmen still enjoy complete impunity back home." In comparison, victims and their families had never received any compensation.
Human Rights Watch said that many leaders of ex-President Habré's dreaded political police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), are still active. Cases filed against them by victims in Chadian courts were at a standstill "because the responsible judge has not been given the means or the security to allow him to investigate," the report says.
Among the three directors of Mr Habré's DDS still living in Chad, one is the regional delegate of the national police, a second is a regional governor, and a third works for the Ministry of Communications. One ex-DDS branch chief accused in court of torture is currently the cabinet secretary of the national police chief. Moreover, a man that Chad's truth commission in 1992 identified as one of the country's "most brutal torturers" under the Habré regime is now a district police commander.
The report also shows how Mr Habré's victims and their families have never received any reparations from the government. In March 2005, the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crimes (AVCRP), which represents more than 1,000 of the Habré regime's victims, formally presented a draft law to the National Assembly seeking compensation for the victims.
The Chadian government has still failed to implement recommendations made by the truth commission in 1992 to construct a monument to honour the memory of the victims or to transform the former DDS headquarters and underground prison into a museum. "Hissène Habré is being investigated abroad, but we, his victims, are being forgotten," said Ismaël Hachim Abdallah, president of the AVCRP. "We are still waiting for the Chadian government and society to recognise the suffering that we and our families endured."
Hissène Habré ruled Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by current President Idriss Déby and fled to Senegal. His brutal one-party regime was backed by the United States and France, which saw him as a bulwark against Libya's Muammar Ghaddafi. The US gave covert CIA paramilitary support to help Mr Habré take power and remained President Habré's strongest ally throughout his rule, providing his government with massive amounts of military aid.
A 1992 truth commission report accused President Habré's regime of some 40,000 political murders and systematic torture. Most predations were carried out the dreaded DDS, whose directors all came from Mr Habré's Gorane ethnic group and which reported directly to the Chadian Dictator.
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