Arusha, January 16, 2015 (FH) \u2013 The trial continued in Chad this week of 21 nationals accused of crimes committed under the regime of ex-president Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9 (1982-1990).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the court on Wednesday heard Mahamat Hassan Abakar, former president of the 1992 National Truth Commission.<\/p>\n
He testified that \u201ctorture was systematic\u201d in the Directorate of Documentation and Security (DDS), Habr\u00e9\u2019s political police.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DDS agents were supermen because they enjoyed total impunity. Once you were arrested by the DDS you had no recourse,\u201d Abakar told the court.<\/p>\n
According to HRW, many people in the gallery wept at the screening of a video produced by the Commission, showing a series of mass graves, the inside of Habr\u00e9\u2019s jails, drawings of the main forms of torture, and footage of emaciated prisoners released after Habr\u00e9\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the trial on November 14, some 50 victims have described acts of torture and ill treatment perpetrated by members of the DDS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trial is Chad\u2019s rendezvous with history,\u201d said Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch. \u201cFor the first time, after 24 years, victims are getting their day in court as the abuses of the Habr\u00e9 government are being presented for all to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josu\u00e9 Doumassem, one of the survivors of the DDS jails, described being subjected to the \u201carbatachar,\u201d a torture method that involved tying all four of a prisoner's limbs behind their back to interrupt the bloodstream and quickly induce paralysis. Several women also alluded to their rape in detention.<\/p>\n
According to Mahamat Moussa Mahamat, another survivor, the prison cells were often so full that prisoners could only sleep in turns. Cl\u00e9ment Abaifouta, president of the victims\u2019 association, described how he was forced to bury the bodies of deceased detainees in mass graves. \u201cI am testifying on behalf of the dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This trial, which is due to conclude by the end of the month, is taking place as the Extraordinary African Chambers set up within Senegal\u2019s justice system are completing investigations in the case against Habr\u00e9, currently in jail in Dakar.<\/p>\n
ER\/JC<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, January 16, 2015 (FH) \u2013 The trial continued in Chad this week of 21 nationals accused of crimes committed under the regime of ex-president Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9 (1982-1990).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-24964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n