Rights groups say reparations yet to be paid to ex-Chadian dictator Habré’s victims
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The victims of the former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre have yet to receive any reparations four years after his historic atrocity conviction in Senegal, human rights advocates said today.
On 30 May, 2016, Habré was convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, including sexual violence and rape, by an African Union-backed Senegalese court and sentenced to life in prison.
In a separate trial in Chad, a court on 25 March, 2015, convicted 20 Habre-era security agents on brutality charges. Both courts ordered millions of euros in victim compensation.
The human rights groups said said in a statement posted on the website of Human Rights Watch that the African Union and the government of Chad should fulfill their obligations to the victims under these court orders.
“Habré’s victims fought relentlessly for 25 years to bring the dictator and his henchmen to justice, and were awarded millions of euros, but they haven’t seen one cent in reparations,” said Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch who has worked with Habré’s victims since 1999.
“Many of the victims who scored these historic victories are in dire straits and in desperate need.”
The statement noted that Habré trial is the only one in the world in which the courts of one country prosecuted the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes and was widely considered “a milestone for justice in Africa.”
It said when an appellate court confirmed Habre's conviction in April 2017, and awarded 82 billion CFA francs (approximately €125 million) to 7,396 named victims, it mandated an African Union Trust Fund to raise the money by searching for Habré’s assets and soliciting contributions.
Although the African Union has allocated $5 million to the Trust Fund, three years later the fund has yet to become operational.
The statement said the Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat in February 2020 promised “in the near future, to convene a Resource Mobilisation Conference to maintain this Fund.”
Habré, who is accused of looting tens of millions of euros from the Chadian treasury, has paid no damages himself.
In the Chadian trial of Habré’s henchmen, the court also awarded 75 billion CFA francs (approximately €114 million) in reparations to 7,000 victims, ordering the government to pay half and the convicted agents the other half.
It ordered the government to erect a monument “in not more than one year” to honour those killed under Habré and to create a museum in the former political police (DDS) headquarters, where detainees were tortured. The government has not complied with any of these orders.
“The African Union and the Chadian government need to implement these court decisions so that the victims, at long last, can receive reparations for what we suffered,” said Clement Abaifouta, president of the Association of Victims of the Crimes of Hissène Habré (AVCRHH), who as a prisoner under Habré was forced to dig graves for many of his fellow inmates.
“We fought for decades for those decisions and now the African Union and our government have made us fight again to get the decisions enforced,” he said.
-0- PANA MA 29May2020
