Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré (born
1942), also spelled
Hissen Habré, was the leader of
Chad from
1982 until he was deposed in
1990.
Habré was born in
1942 in
Chad, then a
colony of
France. 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. He completed a university degree in political science in Paris, and returned to Chad in 1971. After a further brief period of government service, he went to
Tripoli and joined the Forces Armées du Nord (Armed Forces of the North, FAN), an armed Chadian rebel movement. FAN operated in the extreme north of
Chad, among the
Toubou nomadic people, and was led by
Goukouni Oueddei. FAN had itself split from another rebel movement,
FROLINAT, led by
Abba Siddick.
Habré first came to international attention when a group under his command attacked the town of
Bardai 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 doctor,
Christophe Staewen (whose wife was killed in the attack), and two French citizens,
Françoise Claustre, an archeologist, and
Marc Combe, a development worker. Marc Combe escaped in
1975 but, despite the intervention of the French Government, Madame Claustre (whose husband was a senior French government official) was not released until
1 February 1977.
Habré split with Goukouni Oueddei, partly over this hostage-taking incident (which became known as the "Claustre affair" in France), but retained the designation "FAN" for his rebel army.
On
29 August,
1978, Habré was given the post of prime minister of Chad, replacing
Félix Malloum in that position; Malloum had been both prime minister and president since 1975. Habré's term as prime minister ended, however, a year later, when Malloum's government ended. Elections brought
Goukouni Oueddei to the presidency.
Habré deposed Oueddei on
7 June,
1982 and the FAN leader became president; the post of prime minister was abolished. There followed a period of turmoil. Habré created the
secret police force, the
Documentation and Security Directorate (DSD) and many opponents of Habré were executed. It also is believed that thousands of people from tribes Habré thought hostile to the regime were killed.
Libya invaded Chad on July 1975 in an attempt to drive out Habré, occupying and annexing the
Aozou Strip.
France and the
United States responded by aiding Chad in an attempt to contain Libya's regional ambitions under Libyan leader
Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Civil war deepened. On
15 December,
1980, Libya occupied all of northern Chad, but Habré defeated Libyan troops and drove them out on November 1981. In 1983, Libyan troops occupied all of the country north of Koro Toro. The United States used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Qaddafi force. The USA provided military aid and gave support to the DSD.
Habré's aid from the USA and France helped him to win the war against Qaddafi's Libya. The Libyan occupation of the north of Koro Toro ended when Habré defeated him in 1987. By that time, the war was beginning to end, and had ended by 1988.
Despite this victory, Habré's government was weak, and strongly opposed by members of the
Zaghawa ethnic group. On
1 December 1990, he was deposed by
Idriss Déby, a Zaghawa and one of his former generals, with support from Libya. Habré went into
exile in
Senegal, and Déby became president of Chad.
Human rights groups hold Habré responsible for the killing of thousands of people, but the exact number is unknown. Killings included massacres against ethnic groups in the south (1984), against the
Hadjerai (1987), and against the
Zaghawa (1989). He authorized tens of thousands of political murders and physical torture ([
1]).
Between 1993 and 2003, Belgium had
universal jurisdiction legislation allowing the most serious violations of human rights to be tried in national as well as international courts, without any direct connection to the country of the alleged perpetrator, victims or where the crimes took place. Despite the repeal of the legislation, investigations against Habré went ahead and in September 2005 he was indicted for crimes against humanity, torture, war crimes and other human rights violations. Senegal, has Habré under virtual house arrest in
Dakar.([
2])On
March 17 the
European Parliament demanded that
Senegal turn over Habré to
Belgium to be tried. Senegal is not expected to comply, as it already refused
extradition demands from the
African Union. The
ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision.
(allafrica)If he is turned over, he will become the first former dictator to be extradited by a third-party country to stand trial for human rights abuses.
*
List of Dictators*
The Case against Hissène Habré, an "African Pinochet",
Human Rights Watch*
Bringing a Dictator to Justice Human Rights Watch*
Trying Habre in Senegal: An African Solution to an African Problem?,
JURIST*
TRIAL: Hissène Habré before Justice
