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Victims of Hissein Habre's dictatorship in Chad demand justice

Chad

In Chad, victims of the crimes of former President Hussein Habré‘s regime are demanding the execution of the March 2015 ruling of the Special Criminal Court.

A judgment condemning former security agents and the Security Directorate, for assassinations, torture, kidnappings, arbitrary detentions and other acts of crimes committed during the reign of Hissein Habré from 1982 to 1990.

For more than 4 months, these victims have been organizing daily peaceful protests calling on the Chadian authorities to implement the court’s judgement four years on.

“We are here to appeal to the President of the Republic, we are victims of Hissein Habré dictatorship. 4 years after the verdict was handed down he has not applied the court’s decision. That’s why we’ have taken to the streets screaming while those convicted are walking freely. That is why we continue to protest. No one came to us to know how we are doing or what we wanted. The government has remained deaf to our demands ! We’re still waiting. We are not tired, we will keep fighting. He has to answer us. We are also Chadians and he is the father of the Nation, why not answer us, said vice chair of victims of Hissein Habre’s dictatorship Minguebeye Naomie”.

For the lawyer for these victims, who fought for more than 20 years to get Hissein Habré and her accomplices convicted, this trial was a sham.

“When we filed a complaint against the former agents, these complaints remained quietly in the investigating judge’s drawer, who was under a lot of pressure. And because the case is known internationally, Chad immediately reacted because it did not want to hand over these former agents who were wanted by the Court in Dakar, so Chad kept dragging its feet, so in order to bypass the African Extraordinary Chambers request it decided to try the accused persons in a Chadian court, said lawyer for the victims Jacqueline Moudeina”.

On 25 March 2015, the N’Djamena Special Criminal Court sentenced 20 former officers to hard labour ranging from 5 to 20 years for some, to life for others. The ruling also orders the victims to be paid 75 billion CFA francs in damages. To date, they have not yet received anything.

Africanews correspondent

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