Reactions in Chad after the death of Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré, photographed in 1988 during a Franco-African summit in Casablanca.
FILES / AFP
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15 mins
The former Chadian dictator died this Tuesday, April 24 in Dakar.
He was hospitalized following contamination with Covid-19.
He was serving a life sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
From the Chadian citizen who knew his regime to his former lieutenants, the death of Hissène Habré leaves no one indifferent.
Testimonials.
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Relatives of victims hope to receive compensation
Hissène Habré was supposed to pay 20 million CFA to each of the 8,600 victims made up as civil parties.
However, these sums were never paid to the complainants.
For Clément Aibaifouta, president of the Association of Victims of Crimes of the Hissène Habré Regime, the death of the former Chadian president should allow the courts to speed up the compensation process.
This should encourage the Senegalese judicial authorities to seize the property of Hissène Habré and the African Union to quickly set up the reparation fund mechanism.
[...] There is no reason that can block the repair process.
Everything is in place.
But what I regret is this political ill will on the part of the African Union, Senegal and Chad which is causing things to stall.
Unfortunately, this is the African reality.
Clement Aibaifouta
Clément Abaifouta, president of an association of victims of Hissène Habré, moved during a press conference given on July 17, 2013 in Dakar, Senegal, where the former president is imprisoned for crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of torture.
AP - Rebecca Blackwell
For some of these victims, the memory of Hissène Habré's jails is still alive, as evidenced by Souleymane Guengueng, vice-president of the Association of victims of crimes and political repression in Chad.
You couldn't think that human beings like us could treat each other that way.
Personally, I made five different prisons and I even had to live with corpses [...] to live in a cell intended for only one person where there were eight of us, where no one could stretch their legs.
Two weeks were enough to have the legs paralyzed ... What this diet did is beyond comprehension.
Souleymane Guengueng
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The legacy of Hissène Habré
What trace does Hissène Habré leave in the memory of Chadians? Above all that of a dictator who committed crimes against his people, considers the academic, jurist and political scientist Ousmane Houzibé. But this teacher of constitutional law and political science at the National School of Administration of Chad, also judges that Hissène Habré knew how to impose a certain national pride and fight against corruption.
Hissène Habré is nicknamed “the African Pinochet”.
Hissène Habré ruled this country with an iron fist by repressing the Chadians with a militia: the Directorate of Documentation and Security (DDS) which killed at least 40,000 people.
But beyond all the abuses that the Chadian people have known, there is one memory that people can retain of Hissène Habré, which is that at the time when he was ruling, Chad did not know of any prevarication, of embezzlement of public funds, state authority was respected, Chadian citizens were disciplined and cultivated a national feeling ...
Dr Ousmane Houzibé
Despite everything, the legacy of the one who ruled Chad is widely appreciated by the streets.
There are those who salute his qualities as a good manager of the State and those who point to the cruelties of his regime and the victims until then not compensated while justice has condemned the former president for five years.
Reactions of Chadians in the streets of Ndjamena
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The political class is also reacting
Jean-Bernard Padaré, Deputy Secretary General and spokesperson for the MPS, the party of Marshal-President Idriss Déby, sends his condolences to the Habré family.
He also looks back on the legacy of the former president ...
A reaction of sadness.
It is true that it is the MPS which came to expel him from power, it is the MPS government which wanted him to answer for his acts before international justice [...] He did not do so. only bad things.
He was one of the precursors to assert the pride of being African, of being Chadian.
Chad was invaded by the Libyans.
He did everything with his comrades in arms at the time ...
Jean-Bernard Padare
Saleh Kebzabo, leader of the opposition under Idriss Déby and several times a presidential candidate, was recently appointed vice-chairman of the organizing committee for the national dialogue.
He reacts to the death of Hissène Habré.
For 31 years since he had been overthrown by Idriss Déby, former President Habré still has many supporters inside the country who [after] the political decency they observed until now, will now have the latitude to act, to campaign more openly for the national cause which calls us all and which is the gathering of Chadians for an inclusive dialogue.
The fact that this page is turning is an element in favor of all Chadians.
Saleh Kebzabo
Finally, the testimony of General Gouara Lassou who was the second personality of the State under the reign of Hissène Habré.
The retired officer now believes that the former Chadian president was one of the best heads of state in Chad's history.
He even disputes the 40,000 deaths attributed to the regime of which he was number two.
CHAD _His EVENING GOUARA LASSOU ex n ° 2 by Hissène HABRÉ
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In Senegal, Hissène Habré will also leave some memories
He lived 30 years in Senegal, between the neighborhoods of Ouakam and Almadies.
Enough to weave your network and build a good reputation.
Our correspondent in Dakar,
Théa Ollivier
, therefore went to these neighborhoods to collect the testimonies of those who worked with him and his family very closely.
Everyone is upset.
He is a person who was well with those around him.
He was social, he was generous, really pious ...
Reactions in the Dakar district of Hissène Habré
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