Hissène Habré

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Hissène Habré File:3125655 HABREFILE--Former Chad President Hissene Habre is seen at the Elysee Palace in Paris in this trans NvBQzQNjv4Bq2ZXbwsGwb6MG4dvJAZWTSPeVr1c8qm-3XF3yx1kxDdU.jpg Full Name: Hissène Habré Alias: Africa's Pinochet Origin: Faya-Largeau, French Equatorial Africa Occupation: President of Chad (1982 - 1990) Goals: Avoid being persecuted for his crimes (failed) Crimes: Human rights abuses Sexual slavery Rape Mass murder War crimes Torture Crimes against humanity Ethnic cleansing Type of Villain: Sadistic and bloodthirsty dictator

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“	Down with the imperialists. The trial is a farce of Senegalese political parties. African traitors. Valet of America.	„
	~ Hissène Habré

Hissène Habré (born 13 September 1942), is a former Chadian dictator ruling from 1982 to his deposal in 1990. His one party regime was characterized by widespread human rights abuses and atrocities. He denies killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents although in 2012, the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him to face justice overseas. He is the first former head of state to be convicted for human rights abuses in the court of another nation.

Biography

Habré was born in 1942 in Faya-Largeau, northern Chad, then a colony of France, into a family of shepherds. He is a member of the Anakaza branch of the Daza Gourane ethnic group, which is itself a branch of the Toubou ethnic group. After primary schooling, he obtained a post in the French colonial administration, where he impressed his superiors and gained a scholarship to study in France at the Institute of Overseas Higher Studies in Paris. He completed a university degree in political science in Paris, and returned to Chad in 1971. He also obtained several other degrees and earned his Doctorate from the Institute.

After a further brief period of government service as a deputy prefect, he visited Tripoli and joined the National Liberation Front of Chad (FROLINAT) where he became a commander in the Second Liberation Army of FROLINAT along with Goukouni Oueddei. After Abba Siddick assumed the leadership of FROLINAT, the Second Liberation Army, first under Oueddei's command and then under Habré's, split from FROLINAT and became the Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North (CCFAN). In 1976 Oueddei and Habré quarreled and Habré split his newly named Armed Forces of the North (Forces Armées du Nord or FAN) from Goukouni's followers who adopted the name of People's Armed Forces (Forces Armées Populaires or FAP). Both FAP and FAN operated in the extreme north of Chad, drawing their fighters from the Toubou nomadic people.

Habré first came to international attention when a group under his command attacked the town of Bardaï in Tibesti, on 21 April 1974, and took three Europeans hostage, with the intention of ransoming them for money and arms. The captives were a German physician, Dr. Christoph Staewen (whose wife Elfriede was killed in the attack), and two French citizens, Françoise Claustre, an archeologist, and Marc Combe, a development worker. Staewen was released on 11 June 1974 after significant payments by West German officials. Combe escaped in 1975, but despite the intervention of the French Government, Claustre (whose husband was a senior French government official) was not released until 1 February 1977. Habré split with Oueddei, partly over this hostage-taking incident (which became known as the "Claustre affair" in France).

Following his rise to power, Habré created a secret police force known as the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), under which opponents of Habré were tortured and executed.Some methods of torture commonly used by the DDS included; burning with incandescent objects, spraying of gas into the eyes, ears, and nose; forced swallowing of water, and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars. Habré's government periodically engaged in ethnic cleansing against groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members in masses when it perceived that their leaders posed a threat to the regime. This gave him the nickname "Africa's Pinochet".

It is also known that he will have developed a personal hatred against Muammar Gaddafi based on his regime's ambitions to conquer Chad, this is notorious when he personally tortured a Chadian citizen suspected of being Libyan for his light skin color.

The lawsuits against him are initiated in Belgium in application of the law of universal jurisdiction, which, although repealed in 2003, applies in this specific case (certain complainants have acquired Belgian nationality). Belgian justice issues an international arrest warrant, accompanied by a request for immediate arrest, 19 September 2005 and forwarded to the Senegalese authorities. After her arrest on November 15 and police custody for a few days, Hissène Habré was released, the Senegalese justice system was finally declared incompetent and the case reached the level of the African Union.

In July 2006, Senegal was mandated by the African Union to try Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of torture. Senegal embarked on a series of legislative reforms and adopted a constitutional amendment to try the former Chadian dictator. The Senegalese authorities have suspended their legal actions, however, the support of the international community in general and the African Union in particular 8 of the total funds required for the trial, estimated at 27.4 million euros.

Hissene Habre, frantic in his trial

During the first days of the trial, Hissène Habré refused to cooperate and every day was forcibly brought to the Palace of Justice. The victims did not lose hope of speaking. “We have come to Dakar to look the dictator in the eyes,” said the victims, “who has the honor of hearing our testimonies, the courage to face their judges, to respond to the accusations. We want to ask him why we were jailed and tortured, why our relatives were killed. ”