Public Comment

After years of relentless pursuit for justice, President Hissène Habré, of Chad was found guilty of crimes against humanity. His reputation as a brutal warlord in Chad’s civil war did not appear to trouble the Reagan administration who offered massive U.S. military support to bring him to power in 1982. He was often described as "Africa’s Pinochet," for his brutal crackdown on civil dissent. In addition to military support, the U.S. trained his secret police, the DDS who was the main instrument of repression disappearing and torturing thousands of innocent civilians. Under the Freedom of Information Act, memos uncovered during the trial, show the U.S. was fully aware of the brutal crackdowns but did nothing to stop them. Habré was deposed in 1990 but lived a life of luxury in neighboring Senegal until his trial. It was only a precedent established by the British House of Lords which allowed former head of state Pinochet of Chile to be arrested and tried, that the noose finally closed around Habré. The Obama administration and Senegal deserve credit for finally pursuing the course of justice leading to Habré’s arrest and indictment.