{"id":2922,"date":"2015-11-12T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/2922-a-dictator-on-trial-in-africa.html"},"modified":"2015-11-12T11:12:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:12:15","slug":"a-dictator-on-trial-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/2922-a-dictator-on-trial-in-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Opinion : A Dictator on Trial in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Dakar, Senegal) -- \u201cTo the victims I ask for forgiveness.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not sufficient, but I ask for forgiveness.\u201d\u00a0 Bandjim Bandoum, once a top political police agent of the former Chadian dictator, Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, had waited 25 years to unburden himself. Then he turned to Habr\u00e9, sitting a few feet away, and said, \u201cI have lived up to my responsibility, now it is time for you to live up to yours.\u201d Habr\u00e9 remained silent, his face covered up in a turban and sunglasses.<\/p>\n<p>The scene took place last month in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2015\/08\/31\/qa-case-hissene-habre-extraordinary-african-chambers-senegal\">Extraordinary African Chambers<\/a>, an innovative Senegalese court established in 2013 with African Union support. Habr\u00e9<a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2014\/01\/24\/our-man-in-africa\/\">, brought to power in landlocked Chad by Ronald Reagan<\/a> in 1982 as a bulwark against the expansionist designs of Libya\u2019s Muammar Qaddafi, is accused of thousands of political killings and systematic torture before he was overthrown and fled across the continent here to Senegal in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>Habr\u00e9\u2019s trial, now in week eight, has produced new revelations. Last week, four women broke a 30-year silence <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2015\/10\/22\/senegal-hissene-habre-trial-sexual-slavery-accounts\">to testify that they had been sent to the desert north of Chad in 1988 as sexual slaves for Habr\u00e9\u2019s army<\/a>. One was 13 years old at the time. One of the women affirmed that Habr\u00e9 himself had also raped her. Witnesses described how corpses were kept rotting in jail. Forensic experts confirmed the existence of mass graves.<\/p>\n<p>The presiding judge is from Burkina Faso, a veteran of the Rwanda war-crimes tribunal, who sits with two experienced Senegalese judges. The trial is streamed live and broadcast on national television back in Chad.<\/p>\n<p>Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9 has rejected the tribunal\u2019s authority. After his lawyers failed to appear at the opening of the trial, the court appointed three lawyers to defend him and adjourned 45 days so they could prepare. The first day back, Habr\u00e9 was brought in kicking and screaming. But he has sat still ever since, his face almost completely covered, refusing to speak or even to look at the witnesses, many of them former friends. Only at the end of each court session does he raise him arms in a gesture of victory to his family and supporters, who clap as he is led out of court.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the trial, though, has been the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictj.org\/news\/reed-brody-hiss%C3%A8ne-habr%C3%A9-trial-shows-power-victims%E2%80%99-and-civil-society%E2%80%99s-agency\">leading role of the Chadian victims<\/a>, who kept pushing for 25 years, in the face of Senegal\u2019s initial resistance to try Habr\u00e9, until the court was established. A dozen are here for the whole trial, including <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/03\/31\/world\/he-bore-up-under-torture-now-he-bears-witness.html?pagewanted=all&amp;src=pm\">Souleymane Guengueng<\/a><\/span>, who rallied wary survivors and widows into an association after Habr\u00e9\u2019s fall. About 70 are being brought from Chad to testify, often displaying their satisfaction on the stand. Kaltouma Deffalah, one of the former sex slaves, told the court that she felt \u201cvery proud and strong to be here today telling my story when this man, who was once the dictator, is sitting there silently.\u201d Habr\u00e9\u2019s official website called the women \u201cwhores\u201d and \u201cprostitutes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The victims\u2019 lead lawyer,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2011\/09\/30\/right-livelihood-award-standing-victims-chad-s-ex-dictator\">Jacqueline Moudeina<\/a><\/span>, still has shrapnel in her leg from 2001, when one of Habr\u00e9's security bosses, appointed police chief in the post-Habr\u00e9 government , had a grenade thrown at her. Representing 4,435 \u201ccivil parties\u201d here, Maitre Moudeina\u2019s team has an equal voice in the trial to the prosecution and the defense.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another victim\u2019s name has often been invoked here, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7DqJiIN2VBs\">Rose Lokissim<\/a>. She kept notes in jail about the torture and killings there, before she was betrayed and herself murdered in 1986. In 2001, in an abandoned building in Chad\u2019s capital, Ndjam\u00e9na, I stumbled on to the files of Habr\u00e9\u2019s political police, including the report of Lokissim\u2019s last interrogation. Her questioners wrote that Lokissim said that even if they killed her, \u201cChad will thank her and history will talk about her.\u201d History is indeed talking about Lokissim, at least here.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A verdict is expected early next year. No matter how it turns out, this case has shown that survivors, with tenacity and perseverance, can bring their dictator to court, even in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Reed Brody, counsel with Human Rights Watch, has worked with Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9\u2019s victims since 1999.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Dakar, Senegal) -- \u201cTo the victims I ask for forgiveness.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not sufficient, but I ask for forgiveness.\u201d\u00a0 Bandjim Bandoum, once a top political police agent of the former Chadian dictator, Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, had waited 25 years to unburden himself. Then he turned to Habr\u00e9, sitting a few feet away, and said, \u201cI [&hellip;]<\/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":[541],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2167],"class_list":["post-2922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tribunals","ji_location-chad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Opinion : A Dictator on Trial in Africa - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/2922-a-dictator-on-trial-in-africa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion : A Dictator on Trial in Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Dakar, Senegal) -- \u201cTo the victims I ask for forgiveness.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not sufficient, but I ask for forgiveness.\u201d\u00a0 Bandjim Bandoum, once a top political police agent of the former Chadian dictator, Hiss\u00e8ne Habr\u00e9, had waited 25 years to unburden himself. 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