Forwarded from Chris Brady (nonsubscriber)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Why is Africa so obscure(d)? E.g.: Chad vis a vis Chile: Less than a third
population but thirteen times as many slain by Franco/US-backed dictator in
Africa.

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Ex-Chad Ruler Is Charged by Senegal With Torture

February 4, 2000 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAKAR, Senegal, Feb. 3 -- A court here indicted the exiled former dictator
of Chad today on charges of torture.

It was the first time that a former African head of state has been charged
with human rights violations by the court of another country, the Human
Rights Watch, of New York, said.

Backed by the United States and France as a buffer against Libya, the
dictator, Hissène Habré, a French-trained military tactician from northern
Chad, ruled from 1982 to 1990. The United States and France gave him
millions of dollars in weapons and equipment.

A panel set up by President Idriss Déby of Chad has accused Mr. Habré's
administration of 40,000 political assassinations and 200,000 torture
cases. Mr. Habré, 57, has lived here since he fled Chad in 1990, after Mr.
Déby had ousted him.

Mr. Habré appeared in court today to hear the charges. The court placed him
under house arrest, and he remains in his villa on the outskirts of Dakar.

"Today's indictment is a wake-up call to dictators in Africa and elsewhere
that if they commit similar atrocities they could also be brought to
justice one day," said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch.

The case was inspired by charges of human rights abuses against a former
Chilean dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, by a Spanish judge, Mr. Brody said.

Mr. Pinochet was arrested on a visit to Britain in October 1998 and has
been fighting extradition to Spain since then.

Senegal has signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which
obliges states to prosecute or to extradite reported torturers who enter
their territories.

Judge Demba Kandji of the Dakar Regional Court opened an inquiry last week
into whether Mr. Habré was responsible for torture and crimes against
humanity.

Judge Kandji heard evidence from six witnesses, five of whom were tortured
during Mr. Habré's administration and one whose brother was killed.

Human Rights Watch led a group of rights organizations, including the
African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, whose headquarters are
here, in an abuse complaint filed last week against Mr. Habré.

The groups filed papers detailing 97 political killings, 142 cases of
torture and 100 "disappearances."

Seven Chadians and one Frenchwoman whose Chadian husband was killed under
Mr. Habré's government are identified as plaintiffs, along with the Chadian
Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crime, which represents
792 reported victims. They include Samuel Togoto, 53, who says his hands
and legs were bound behind his back for so long that he became temporarily
paralyzed.

"Our pleas have been answered," Mr. Togoto said today. "This is one of the
happiest days of my life."

C O M M E N T  (by query):

Trained in France; financed by France and USA. Who was the intellectual
author of that mass crime in Chad? Rhetorically yours, CDB


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/