Chadians victims testify to atrocities under Habre

Three Chadian victims testified in a Dakar court on Friday to atrocities committed during the rule of former Chadian leader Hissein Habre, from 1982-1990, Reed Brody advocacy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Senegal told IRIN on Friday. One of the victims, Suleymane Guengueng, 48, told the court that he almost died of dengue fever during two years of mistreatment in Chadian prisons. Another, Samuel Togoto, 53, said his hands and legs were bound behind his back for so long that he became temporarily paralysed. In a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday in a Dakar court, a coalition of human rights groups provided details of 97 cases of political killings, 142 cases of torture and 100 cases of “disappearances” committed by Habre’s forces during his eight year rule. “We hope that more witnesses will be heard on Monday and the judge will indict Hissein Habre next week,” Brody said.