Civil society and human rights organizations want to put pressure on the Senegalese Head of State while it is preparing to exercise the presidency of the African Union.
Le Monde with AFP
Monday, January 3, Defenders of Rights have urged the Senegalese Head of State, Macky Sall, to take advantage of the Presidency of the African Union (AU) that it is preparing to assume to unlock the Compensation of thousands of victims of the ex-Chadian Dictator Hissène Habré. “No victim has only received a single penny,” said M e Assane Dioma Ndiaye, Senegalese coordinator of the victims of Hissène Habré victims at the 2015-2016 trial in Dakar against the former Chadian President who died in 2021.
“Mr. Macky Sall has a second appointment with history,” said M e Ndiaye alongside representatives of civil society organizations and human rights defense. According to him, after having acceded to the presidency in April 2012 and put an end to the resistance of his country in holding the Hissène Habré trial in Senegalese territory, Mr. Sall must ensure that victims are compensated during this year. He will exercise the rotating presidency of the AU.
Hissène Habré, who led Chad of an iron hand from 1982 to 1990 and who had taken refuge in Senegal after being driven out of power, had been arrested, charged and judged by a special court under the Aegis of the AU. He had been convicted of crimes against humanity, rape, executions, slavery and kidnappings, and sentenced on May 30, 2016 at the life prison after an unprecedented trial. Hissène Habré has served his sentence in Senegal, where he succumbed to COVID-19 in August 2021, at the age of 79, and where he was buried.
Dead victims without touching anything. / H2>
A Chadian commission of inquiry has quantified the number of victims of repression under the Habré regime. Nearly 8,000 civilian parts expect allowances, the total amount of which is 82 billion CFA francs (125 million euros), told rights defenders. The court that confirmed the sentence of Hissène Habré in 2017 had mandated a fund to compensate the victims from the property of the former leader and voluntary contributions. But this fund is still not operational while many victims are dead without touching anything.
“There has never been a political will on the part of the AU,” has lampitated M e Ndiaye: “If there is late, it’s only because That the former Presidents of the AU who followed one another did not put the acts “which would have allowed this fund to operate.