By Abdul Tejan-Cole
On August 24, 2021, Chad’s former President, Hissen Habré, died in Senegal. Reports indicate that he fell ill in prison about a week before his death and was taken to a private clinic in Dakar. He is said to have contracted the COVID-19 virus at this clinic. By the time he was moved to the Hospital Principal, it was too late.
Few mourned his passing. The only tribute of note I saw from an African leader was a tweet from the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, himself a Chadian. Senegalese Justice Minister, Malick Sall, told local station TFM that “Habré is in his Lord’s hands.”
Habré became President of Chad in 1982 following a coup d'état supported by the French and Americans who saw him as a bulwark against communism. This was the Cold War era and prior to the West’s détente with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. He was Reagan’s man in Africa and received support in the form of arms and ammunition from the West and training for his dreaded political police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).
His eight-year reign was characterized by widespread political killings, systematic torture and thousands of arbitrary arrests. The Chadian Commission of Inquiry into the Crimes and Misappropriations Committed by Ex-President Habré, His Accomplices and/or Accessories set up in 1990 to investigate the crimes and misappropriations committed by Habré and his accomplices, accused Habré’s government of systematic torture, and found it responsible for the death of 40,000 people. Most abuses were carried out by the DDS, whose leadership was from his ethnic group and reported directly to him. The Commission heard gruesome evidence of torture, including in the dreaded “piscine,” a swimming pool located in Habré’s backyard, which he converted into cells and a death chamber.
In 1990, Habré was overthrown by his Chief of Staff, Idriss Déby Itno, who served as President of Chad until his bizarre death in a firefight in April this year. Déby was installed with the full support of Gaddafi. As Déby’s forces approached the Chadian capital N’Djamena, with the help of the French and US, Habré boarded a Lockheed L 100 Hercules propeller plane allegedly with US$11million and travelled to Senegal via Cameroon.
For many years, Habré lived a quiet and luxurious life, frequently shuttling between the wealthy suburbs of Almadies and the fishing community of Ouakam in Dakar. He enjoyed the protection of the Senegalese government, then led by Abdou Diouf and later Abdoulaye Wade. Habré also enjoyed the support of the leader of the powerful Tidiane brotherhood, Caliph Serigne Mansour Sy, and retained the services of Lawyer Madické Niang, a one-time Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
As a result of his powerful connections, he successfully fought several attempts by the victims and Belgium to extradite him. In 2006, the African Union asked Senegal to prosecute Habré “on behalf of Africa.” It took another five years for Senegal and the African Union to eventually reach an agreement to set up an Extraordinary African Chambers, a hybrid tribunal, whose legal competence to prosecute Habre for crimes committed in Chad was based on the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. The trial in Senegal commenced in 2015. Although Habré failed to recognize the court and called it a politically motivated sham, over 80 witnesses testified against him and directly implicated him. In 2016, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, including systemic torture, murder, sexual slavery and rape. An appeals court confirmed Habré’s conviction in April 2017 and awarded approximately US$150 million to 7,396 victims, mandating an African Union Trust Fund to raise the money by searching for Habré’s assets and soliciting contributions.
The Habré judgment was hailed as a victory for the victims and international justice and a powerful statement against impunity. It was the first time a deposed African ruler was tried for human rights violations by a court of a country other than his own. It helped erode the erroneous assumptions that heads of state have immunity and crystalized the principle of universal jurisdiction for war crimes and crimes against immunity. It was a significant victory for the African Union. The Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said the judgment brings alive the AU’s determined fight against impunity and human rights violations across the continent while promoting accountability.
Despite its importance, the entire process left a lot to be desired. That it took Habré’s victims over 20 years to wait for him to be brought to justice is, to say the least, disappointing. From 1990 when he was deposed, it was not until 2015 that he was put on trial. Even after his conviction, no reparation has been provided to any of the victims. The Truth Commission calculated that Habré’s regime produced “more than 40,000 victims, more than 80,000 orphans, more than 30,000 widows, and more than 200,000 persons who found themselves, due to this repression, to be without moral or material support.” The African Union adopted the Trust Fund’s statute in 2017 and allocated $5 million to the fund, but it has yet to become operational and victims have not received any reparation. With Habré’s death, it may be even more difficult for his assets to be identified and seized. The victims may very well end up with only paltry compensation.
In addition, although a few DDS operatives were held to account, the vast majority of Habré’s accomplices were not held to account. A significant number of them were reinstated in the army, gendarmerie and the successor to the DDS. Many pointed fingers at Déby himself but as a sitting head of state and maybe because of his support and cooperation in the Habré investigation and trial, he was never investigated. Déby’s support for the victims’ association and the investigation made the conviction of Habré possible. He, however, impeded the trial of other senior officials in his government. His government failed to provide the investigative judges with the finance or security to carry on their work. Leaders in the West who aided, abetted and/or turned a blind eye to Habré’s atrocities were also never held to account.
Habre was a despicable monster who deserved and was rightly convicted. His legacy reminds leaders globally that they will be held to account no matter how long it takes. African leaders, in particular, need to be mindful of serving Western interests. There are no permanent friends, just interests. It is unfortunate that the trial’s legacy is mixed and that the plight of Chadian people largely remains unchanged.
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