For most of the 1980s, Hissène Habré ruled Chad with an iron fist. Known as ‘Africa’s Pinochet’, he is accused of thousands of political killings and acts of torture. Files recovered from Habré’s feared political police, the Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité, reveal the names of over 1,200 people who were killed or died in detention. Another 12,321 victims of human rights violations are listed, although a commission of enquiry set up in 1992 by President Idriss Déby, Habré’s successor, suggests that the numbers could be far higher.
Habré, who seized power in 1982 with the backing of the US and France (who considered him an ally against Libyan leader Qadafi), fled to Senegal in 1990 when he was deposed by Déby. He has remained in exile there ever since, and had seemed out of reach of the rule of law. His victims and their families feared they would never see justice done.
