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Methodology and Acknowledgements

This report is the fruit of Human Rights Watch’s six years of work on the ground in Chad in support of Habré’s victims and Chadian human rights groups. That work has been led by Reed Brody, special counsel for prosecutions, and Olivier Bercault, legal counsel. Maria Koulouris, Pascal Kambale, Camille Bonnant, Philip Grant, Christopher Albin-Lackey, Celine Furi, Alpha Fall, David Hans, Lila Azam Zanganeh, Camille Park, Pauline Busson, Léa Bernard, Genoveva Hernandez, Nicolas Seutin, Sabrina Goldman, Natalie Horowitz, Elizabeth Kissam, Axel Acakpo-Satchivi, and Dustin Sharp, in addition to those mentioned below, also worked on the Habré case for Human Rights Watch.

This report was written by Reed Brody, with the assistance of interns Anabelle Vanier-Clément and Marion Lignac. The report was reviewed and revised by Olivier Bercault with the assistance of Emily Bono, intern. Interns Fanny Moinel and Diane Davidovici-Chouchane updated the report. Reed Brody and interns Marion Lignac, Anabelle Vanier-Clément, and Tara Plochocki developed the background files of Habré-era security agents who are still in positions of authority, using the following sources:

  • The abandoned files of the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) discovered by Human Rights Watch in May 2001;

  • Dossiers on 792 victims prepared in 1990-1992 by the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crimes (AVCRP);

  • The report of the Chadian Truth Commission and the original witness interviews conducted by the Truth Commission; and

  • One hundred fifty (150) interviews with victims conducted in 2001 and 2002 by Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues.

    These background files are attached to the French version of this report.

    The DDS documents discovered by Reed Brody and Olivier Bercault were sorted, photocopied, and organized by a team from the AVCRP led by Sabadet Totodet. The database was compiled by Reed Brody, Olivier Bercault, Camille Bonnant, Maria Koulouris, Carrie Allen, Mary Kinney, Tara Plochocki, Iram Chaudhary, Joel Dossa, Tamita Ngarbaroum, Camille Park, Elizabeth Roesch, and Vivianna Beltrametti Walker of Human Rights Watch, who assembled and coded photocopies of original documents using a program designed by Patrick Ball, director of the Human Rights Program at The Benetech Initiative; the software was written by Miguel Cruz. The data preparation and statistical analysis was conducted by Romesh Silva, with technical assistance by Scott Weikart and Rafe Kaplan. The statistical analysis was reviewed by Patrick Ball and was developed based on a preliminary analysis conducted by Jana Dudokovich and Kristen Cibelli. The list of current positions held by former DDS agents was prepared by Reed Brody, Olivier Bercault and Maria Koulouris of Human Rights Watchand Martien Schotsmans of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, with the invaluable help of the AVCRP, and particularly Souleymane Guengueng.

    We are grateful to Jacqueline Moudeina, president of the ATPDH, and to Souleymane Guengueng of the AVCRP who looked at and made suggestions to an earlier version of this report, as well as to William Bourdon of the Paris Bar for his review. Large parts of the report were translated into English by Carrie Allen, and other parts by Pauline Busson and Reyko Huang. Wilder Tayler, legal and policy director, provided a legal review. Widney Brown, deputy program director, and Rania Suidan, global advocacy associate, edited the report. Katherine Kruk prepared the report for publication.



    <<previous  |  index  |  next>>July 2005