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Rights groups call for Hissene Habre’s arrest

A coalition of human rights groups filed a complaint in a Senegalese court on Wednesday urging it to arrest former Chadian leader Hissene Habre, 57, for human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based NGO, said the complaint was being made “on behalf of hundreds of victims of torture, political murder and disappearances”. The NGO, together with Chadian and Senegalese activists, accused Habre of crimes against humanity and torture during his 1982-1990 rule. Habre has lived in Senegal since his ouster in December 1990 by Idriss Deby, who is Chad’s current president. “Hissene Habre is Africa’s Pinochet,” Reed Brody, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said. Brody, who is now in Dakar, said by bringing Habre to justice, Senegal could take “an historic step towards ending the cycle of impunity that has plagued the continent”. The coalition provided the investigating judge in Dakar with details of 97 political killings, 142 cases of torture and 100 cases of disappearances. HRW said nine individual Chadians are named as private plaintiffs, as is the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crime, which represents 792 victims of Habre’s brutality. HRW added that the exact number of Habre’s victims was unknown. However, it said, a truth commission established by the Deby government accused Habre’s administration of 40,000 political murders and 200,000 cases of torture. Most were allegedly carried out by his 8,000-member secret police, the Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité (DDS). Joining Human Rights Watch in Wednesday’s actions, HRW said, were the Senegalese NGO Rencontre africaine pour le defense de droit de l’homme (RADDHO), the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, the Chadian Human Rights League (LTDH), the National Organization for Human Rights (Senegal), the London-based Interights, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the French organization Agir Ensemble. “This is the first case of African victims asking the court of another African country to prosecute a former African dictator,” Alioune Tine, who heads RADDHO, told IRIN.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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