United Nations rights chief welcomed war crimes trial for former Chadian leader

Chadian dictator Hissene Habre went on trial yesterday in Senegal, a quarter of a century after his blood-soaked reign came to an end, in a trial seen as a test case for African justice.

QUIST-ARCTON: Hissene Habre lived in exile in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, keeping a low profile and, say his accusers, enjoying immunity.

“Down with imperialism, down with neocolonialism”, the former president, dressed all in white, cried as he was removed from the bench minutes later.

A lawyer close to Habre said he would not address the tribunal and refused to recognise its authority.

But guards forced him into the dock before a courtroom packed with a thousand participants and spectators.

The High Commissioner noted that his Office, which over the past few years has actively supported accountability efforts in Senegal and Chad, will also closely monitor the trials progress.

Several supporters screamed slogans condemning the trial in the lobby of the Dakar courthouse and were thrown out by police.

Chad’s former dictator Hissene Habre will make history on Monday when he is tried in Senegal over his regime’s brutality – the first time a despot from one African country has been called to account by another.

In December 1990 the doors were opened to the prison cells in N’Djamena.

Whereas the Bashir case was presented to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council, Habre’s prosecution is built on campaigning by thousands of victims and Chadian lawyer Jaqueline Moudeina, who faced repeated threats.

In a report from the current government in Chad, Habre and his regime is accused of complicity in 40,000 deaths via torture such as beating, burning, whipping, and pulling out victims fingernails.

“We must have the capacity to try our own leaders right here in Africa”.

“Rarely do we find so much evidence of crimes”, said Brody.

The African Union had mandated Senegal to try Habre in July 2006, but the country stalled the process for years under former president Abdoulaye Wade, who was defeated in 2012 elections.

“This is a chance to show that an African court can deliver justice for African victims for crimes committed in Africa”, said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who has pursued the Habre case since 1999.

“There was a lot of suffering, a lot of pain”, he said about his time in jail until 1989.

The Extraordinary African Chambers – set up in an agreement between Dakar and the AU – finally indicted Habre in July 2013 and placed him in pre-trial custody while investigators spent 19 months interviewing a few 2,500 witnesses.

Habre was overthrown by rebel troops in December 1990 and fled to Senegal, where he was arrested in June 1993.

“When we began this case, when we started working with the victims – I started in 1999 – one of the victims said to Human Rights Watch ‘since when has justice come all the way to Chad?'”, Mr Brody said.

“The African Union saw the importance of being able to show that you can have justice in Africa”, he added.