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Human Rights Watch to Honor Africa Justice Activist
Victim Leads Fight to Try ex-Dictator Hissène Habré
(New York, November 7, 2002) On November 13, Human Rights Watch will give its highest recognition to Souleymane Guengueng, a torture victim who leads the campaign to bring the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, to justice. Guengueng’s pioneering effort seeks to break the cycle of impunity on the war-torn African continent.


Victims' Association founder, Souleymane Guengueng, with the files of 792 victims.
Victims' Association founder, Souleymane Guengueng, with the files of 792 victims

Related Material

Photograph of Souleymane Guengueng

More Information on the Habré Case

Article on Souleymane Guengueng
New York Times, March 2001



“Souleymane has harnessed his own suffering into a campaign to break the cycle of impunity that has plagued his country and all of Africa.”

Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch’s special counsel for prosecutions


 
Founder of the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crime (AVCRP), Souleymane Guengueng has worked to record and publicize the atrocities of Habré’s regime (1982-1990). Habré lives in exile in Senegal, where he was indicted two years ago on charges of torture and crimes against humanity, after a complaint filed by the AVCRP with the support of a coalition led by Human Rights Watch. Habré's victims are now seeking his extradition from Senegal to stand trial in Belgium.

“Souleymane has harnessed his own suffering into a campaign to break the cycle of impunity that has plagued his country and all of Africa,” said Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch’s special counsel for prosecutions. “In the process, he has set a vital precedent so that the voices of victims can be heard loud and clear.”

Souleymane, falsely accused of supporting Habré’s opposition, was arrested on August 3, 1988. He almost died of dengue fever during two years of mistreatment in Habré's prisons and watched hundreds of others succumb to malaria, exhaustion, malnutrition and torture. Freed as Habré fled the country on December 1, 1990, Souleymane and other former prisoners founded the AVCRP, which gathered testimony from 792 victims, widows and orphans, hoping to use them to bring Habré to justice and win compensation for the victims or their survivors. When many of Habré's accomplices were given key positions in the new government, however, Souleymane hid the files underneath the mud-brick home where he lives with the 24 members of his family, including nine children. That is where the files stayed for eight years until Souleymane handed them to a Human Rights Watch researcher in 1999 for use in the case against Hissène Habré.

As The New York Times said in its moving portrait of Souleymane and his work, "on a continent where ordinary men are tortured, killed and forgotten without a second thought, Mr. Guengueng, has done something extraordinary: fought back. After being unjustly imprisoned and tortured for two years in the late 1980's, he spent the next decade gathering testimony from fellow victims and their families.

The evidence provided critical material for Chadian and international human rights organizations to pursue a case against the country's former dictator, Hissene Habre."

France’s Liberation said, “a surprising tug of war pits this modest civil servant against the ex-dictator who bathed his country in blood.”

Background:
Hissène Habré ruled the former French colony of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by current President Idriss Déby and fled to Senegal. His one-party regime, marked by widespread atrocities, was backed by the United States and France. Habré launched several campaigns against ethnic groups such as the Sara (1984), the Hadjerai (1987) and the Zaghawa (1989), killing and arresting leaders and extended families and even destroying whole communities when he perceived that the groups were hostile to his regime.

Habré was indicted and placed under house arrest in Senegal two years ago on charges of torture and crimes against humanity before the Senegalese courts ruled that he could not be tried there. Habré's victims are now seeking his extradition to stand trial in Belgium, and Senegal has agreed to hold him pending an extradition request. A Belgian judge recently visited Chad to investigate the charges against Habré’s. Guengueng and his colleagues have also brought criminal proceedings against Habré’s henchmen who remain in Chad.

But the victims face real dangers in their quest. The victims' Chadian lawyer, Jacqueline Moudeina, was severely injured in a grenade attack.. Souleymane Guengueng was suspended from his job just after the Belgian judge's visit for engaging in “political activity” and has been tailed by uniformed men.