The name of current Chadian president Idriss Deby looks likely to come up often during the trial of his predecessor Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, which opened in Senegal on Monday July 20.<\/p>\n
The current strongman in N'Djamena has not been charged in the case, but he is often cited as a suspected accomplice of his former boss.<\/p>\n
Former president Habr\u00e9, whose trial was on Tuesday adjourned until September after the court assigned him three lawyers, is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of torture committed under his regime.<\/p>\n
Habr\u00e9, now 72, has been in exile in Senegal for more than 20 years. He is has been detained since July 2013 in a Dakar prison.<\/p>\n
He is being tried by the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC), a special court created within the Senegalese justice system under an agreement between Dakar and the African Union. The court has a mandate to try serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Chad from 1982 to 1990.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution, there is evidence of chains of command linking Habr\u00e9 to abuses committed by his feared political police, the Directorate of Documentation and Security (DDS), at whose hands human rights groups say some 40,000 people died.<\/p>\n
But some lawyers in Dakar, such as Chairman of the Senegalese Bar Mbaye Gu\u00e8ye, think there cannot be justice for this bloody period of Chad\u2019s history unless all the suspects, including the current Head of State, are made to answer in court.<\/p>\n
Speaking in court on Monday, Mbaye Gu\u00e8ye criticized in scarcely veiled terms the fact that Idriss Deby has not been charged. Deby was at the time head of the Chadian army.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor events over nearly ten years that left tens of thousands dead, you are only trying one man,\u201d Gu\u00e8ye said during the opening ceremony of the Habr\u00e9 trial. \u201cAll the others charged have finally slipped through the net of justice owing to the will of one man who should himself appear here because he was in the forefront of the troops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another Senegalese lawyer went further in an interview with the press after the ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe African Union has not given the African Chambers a mandate to judge Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, it gave them a mandate to judge the facts, the crimes committed in Chad from 1982 to 1990. But these events implicate many people, some of whom are following this trial sitting comfortably in their armchairs in Chad,\u201d said the lawyer, mentioning by name the current Chadian president Idriss Deby.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International, which has long fought alongside the victims with other organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), expressed a similar concern. \u201cChad\u2019s current President Idriss D\u00e9by has not been indicted by the Extraordinary African Chambers, but served as Chief of Staff of the army under Habr\u00e9\u2019s administration,\u201d it said in a statement published earlier in the day. \u201cResearch undertaken by Amnesty International suggests that troops under his command may have committed mass killings in southern Chad in 1984.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step for the Chadian authorities is to ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to bringing those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law committed during Habr\u00e9\u2019s time in office to justice,\u201d Amnesty\u2019s West Africa researcher Ga\u00ebtan Mootoo said in the communiqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way for Chad to break with its tragic past is to ensure all those responsible for the massive catalogue of human rights violations and crimes under international law face civilian courts,\u201d says this human rights activist, who worked on Chad when Habr\u00e9 was President. \u201cAnything less will send the message that these crimes are actually allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Wednesday in Dakar, Chad\u2019s Communication Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari and Justice Minister Mahamat Issa Halikimi, who had come for the historic opening of the trial, defended their boss. After describing Habr\u00e9 as \u201cthe worst dictator humanity has ever known\u201d and \u201ca man who was capable of killing even his own parents\u201d, the Communication Minister affirmed that Idriss Deby Itno \u201cwas never associated from near or far with the Directorate of Documentation and Security, the killing machine that is now in the dock\u201d. He said that on the contrary, Deby was one of Habr\u00e9\u2019s victims. \u201cHe himself was a victim of that killing machine. He lost eleven members of his family,\u201d\u00a0the minister explained. His colleague the Justice Minister stressed that no complaint had been brought against Deby up to now. \u201cLet us try not to jump to conclusions,\u201d he said, visibly annoyed.<\/p>\n
The two envoys from N'Djamena said that the Chadian government had no intention of putting the slightest pressure on the Extraordinary African Chambers, of which it is the biggest donor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The name of current Chadian president Idriss Deby looks likely to come up often during the trial of his predecessor Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, which opened in Senegal on Monday July 20. The current strongman in N'Djamena has not been charged in the case, but he is often cited as a suspected accomplice of his former boss. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":65554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2167],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mixed-tribunals","ji_location-chad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n