Chadian dictator Hissene Habre went on trial Monday in Senegal, a quarter of a century after his blood-soaked reign came to an end, in a prosecution seen as a test case for African justice. Once dubbed "Africa's Pinochet", the 72-year-old has been in custody in Senegal since his arrest in June 2013 at the home he shared in an affluent Dakar suburb with his wife and children.
Dressed in white robes and a turban, Habre pumped a fist in the air and cried "God is greatest" as he was escorted by prison guards into the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese capital. He refused legal representation, having consistently said he did not recognise the court's jurisdiction and vowing not to cooperate with the trial. The courthouse, packed with around 1,000 participants, spectators and local and international media, heard a number of introductory speeches before it emerged the defendant was refusing to enter the dock. "These chambers that I call an 'extraordinary administrative committee' are illegitimate and illegal. Those who preside here are not judges but simple functionaries," Habre said in a statement read out by the chief judge. He said he had been "kidnapped" and "illegally detained" and therefore had no case to answer. The court adjourned for the day, ruling that Habre would be conducted by force to the dock for the second day of the trial on Tuesday.
Habre - backed during his presidency by France and the United States as a bulwark against Libya's Moamer Kadhafi - is on trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture in Chad from 1982 to 1990. He was overthrown by rebel troops in December 1990 and fled to Senegal. Chief prosecutor Mbacke Fall paid tribute to the survivors of the Habre era "who had the virtue to pursue the fight against impunity". Rights groups say 40,000 Chadians were killed under a regime by brutal repression of opponents and the targeting of rival ethnic groups Habre perceived as a threat to his grip on the Sahel nation.
"This trial is staged for our people, for our future, for the future of Africa. And it is being staged to reconcile us with ourselves," said Chadian Justice Minister Mahamat Issa Halikim. Delayed for years by Senegal, the trial sets a historic precedent as until now African leaders accused of atrocities have been tried in international courts. Senegal and the African Union (AU) signed an agreement in December 2012 to set up a court to bring Habre to justice.
The AU had mandated Senegal to try Habre in July 2006, but the country stalled the process for years under former president Abdoulaye Wade, who was defeated in 2012 elections. "This is the first case anywhere in the world - not just in Africa - where the courts of one country, Senegal, are prosecuting the former leader of another, Chad, for alleged human rights crimes," Reed Brody, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told AFP.
Brody described the trial as a "test case for African justice" that had come as a result of 25 years of campaigning by the victims. The Extraordinary African Chambers indicted Habre in July 2013 and placed him in pre-trial custody while four investigating judges spent 19 months interviewing some 2,500 witnesses and victims. Around 100 witnesses will testify during hearings expected to last around three months, although 4,000 people have been registered as victims in the case.
"When we began this case, when we started working with the victims - I started in 1999 - one of the victims said to Human Rights Watch 'since when has justice come all the way to Chad?'," Brody told AFP. "The African Union saw the importance of being able to show that you can have justice in Africa," he added. The UN described the opening of the trial as a "milestone for justice in Africa" while France issued a statement welcoming the opening of a process it said it had helped establish.
France sent 3,000 paratroopers with air support to support Habre when Libyan-backed supporters of his political rival Goukouni Weddeye launched an offensive in northern Chad in 1983. Rights groups say the US, too, provided a variety of support to Habre - including training, intelligence and arms for his feared secret police - despite being aware of the regime's atrocities. US State Department spokesman John Kirby hailed "an important step toward justice" for those who suffered under Habre's rule.
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