Chad ex-dictator Habre gets life sentence for war crimes

Dakar

The African Union-backed court in Senegal on Monday slammed a life jail sentence against former Chadian President Hissène Habre.

The Burkina Faso judge of the court, Justice Gberdao Gustave Kam, announced the verdict declaring Habré guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Judge Kam, however declared that the former leader’s property would not be confiscated as requested by the Senegalese prosecutor of the court.

Habré will henceforth spend the rest of his life in the Camp Manuel jail near Dakar which were especially refurbished for the trial.

Outside the courthouse, there were both wailing on the part of Habré supporters and jubilation on the part of the families of victims many of them from Chad who fell on the ground with tears of joy running down their cheeks.

The verdict brings a long-awaited reckoning to relatives of the up to 40,000 people killed and many more kidnapped, raped or tortured under his 1982-1990 rule as president of Chad.

Habre was guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, forced slavery, and kidnapping, said the president of the court Gberdao Gustave Kam, sentencing him to life in jail. His time would be served in a yet to be determined location.

Habre raised his arms into the air on hearing the verdict, shouting “Down with France-afrique!” referring to the term used for France’s continuing influence on its former colonies.

The former leader has 15 days to appeal the sentence.

Victims groups who had travelled to Dakar to hear the verdict were visibly moved by a judgement that comes a quarter century after the abuses they suffered.

FIGHT IMPUNITY

“The feeling is one of complete satisfaction,” said Clement Abeifouta, president of a Habre survivors association.

“It’s the crowning achievement of a long and hard fight against impunity. Today Africa has won. We say thank you to Senegal and to Africa for judging Africa,” he added.

The case was heard by the CAE special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal, and is the first time a country has prosecuted a former leader of another nation for rights abuses.

In the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, up to 250 victims and their supporters gathered to watch the trial on television at their group’s headquarters.

Women screamed with joy as the verdict was read out, embracing one another and shouting “We won!”, before taking to the streets and blocking traffic as they spread the news.

“This is a victory for the Chadian people against impunity and injustice, never again,” said Jean Noyama, head of the AVCRHH victims association.
The precedent set by the verdict could be seismic, according to legal experts.

Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 15 years working with victims to bring Habre to justice, said the conviction was a warning to other despots.

LIFE OF LUXURY

“This verdict sends a powerful message that the days when tyrants could brutalise their people, pillage their treasury and escape abroad to a life of luxury are coming to an end,” Reed said in a statement.

“Today will be carved into history as the day that a band of unrelenting survivors brought their dictator to justice.”

Amnesty International West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said the verdict would serve as a guiding light for those living in repressive regimes around the world.

“It is moments like these that other victims around the world can draw on in darker times when justice appears beyond reach. It will nourish them with hope and give them strength to fight for what is right,” Mootoo said in a statement.

Known as a skilled desert warrior often dressed in combat fatigues to fit the role, Habre fled to Senegal after his 1990 ouster by Chad’s current President Idriss Deby.

Witnesses recounted the horror of life in Chad’s prisons, describing in graphic detail abusive and often deadly punishments inflicted by Habre’s feared secret police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).

Victims were subject to electric shocks and waterboarding while some had gas sprayed in their eyes or spice rubbed into their genitals, the court heard.