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Minister of Justice's Commission of Inquiry on the Crimes Committed by the Hissene Habré Regime Print E-mail
Africa - Chad
 
NAME OF MECHANISM

Commission d'Enquête du Ministère chadien de la Justice sur les Crimes du Régime de Hissène Habré or the Ministry of Justice’s Commission of Inquiry on the Crimes committed by the Regime of Hissene Habré

 
YEARS OF OPERATION
1990-1991 (10 months)
 
MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: Established by President Idriss Déby to investigate  the illegal imprisonments, detentions, assassinations, disappearances, torture, the mistreatment, and other attacks on the physical or mental integrity of persons, and all violations of human rights and illicit trafficking in narcotics between 1982 and 1990 (8 years). Also looked at the embezzlement of state funds.

First commission established to name responsible individuals.

Staff: Made up of 12-16 members.

Results: Documented 3,428 killings, unspecified number of cases of torture and arbitrary detention and accused the Habre government of estimated 40,000 political killings.

FINAL REPORT

Rapport de la Commission (Report of the Commission) (May 7, 1992) [excerpts can be found in Kritz [NK, Vol. 3]

Report not available on internet, but the Charter which established the Commission is available at: http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/charters/tc_chad.html

Report later used by international rights advocates in an attempt to prosecute Habré. [PH]

LATEST UPDATE

 

October 2007: Following years of attempts to get Habre charged, including possible extradition to Belgium, the UN pressurised Senegal and issued a 90-day deadline in May (2006) for Dakar to agree to a trial of former Chad President Hissene Habre [HRW; BBC News].

In July 2006, Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade made an announcement at the African Union summit in Banjul that former Chad president Hissene Habre will be tried in Senegal for his abuse of human rights during his tenure. According to Wade, in consultation with the AU, Habre will be charged in Africa and a special court would be set up in Senegal to handle the case, in co-operation with Chad ’s current government. [BBC]

In July 2007, Sengalese Justice Minister Sheik Tidiane Sy said that Habre will stand trial in a Senegalese criminal court and not in a special tribunal [allafrica.co.za] The delay of the trial of Hissene Habre has since caused a serious outcry and suspicion amongst the victims who suffered torture under his rule that Senegal is trying to defend him [Reuters]

 

 
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STATUS

COMPLETE