BackgroundHissène Habré ruled the former French colony of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by current President Idriss Déby Itno and fled to Senegal. His one-party regime was marked by widespread atrocities. Habré periodically targeted various ethnic groups such as the Sara (1984), Hadjerai (1987), Chadian Arabs, and the Zaghawa (1989-90), killing and arresting group members en masse when he believed that their leaders posed a threat to his regime. The exact number of Habré’s victims is not known. Files of Habré’s political police, the DDS (Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité), discovered by Human Rights Watch, reveal the names of 1,208 persons who died in detention. Hissène Habré has been living in Senegal since 1990. After his victims filed a criminal complaint, he was first indicted there in 2000, before appellate courts ruled that he could not be tried for crimes allegedly committed abroad. His victims then turned to Belgium and, after a four-year investigation, a Belgian judge in September 2005 issued an international arrest warrant charging Habré with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture. Pursuant to a Belgian extradition request, Senegalese authorities arrested Habré in November 2005. When a Senegalese court refused to rule on the extradition request, the Senegalese government asked the African Union to recommend “the competent jurisdiction” to try Habré. On July 2, 2006, the AU, following the recommendation of an AU Committee of Eminent African Jurists and a ruling against Senegal by the United Nations Committee Against Torture, called on Senegal to prosecute Hissène Habré “on behalf of Africa,” and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade declared that his country would do so. More detailed background can be found inhuman Rights Watch’s “The Trial of Hissène Habré: Time is Running Out for the Victims.” |