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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The bodies came daily. Sometimes 10, sometimes 20 lives lost to torture, malnutrition or sickness in prison in Chad, say survivors.
Clement Abaifouta, a prisoner himself, had to wrap them in sacks and bury them.
“There was a lot of suffering, a lot of pain,” he said about his time in jail until 1989. “What did I do to have gotten four years in prison? I want to know why.”
Abaifouta wants justice, like thousands of other political prisoners who were victims of torture during Chadian ex-dictator Hissene Habre’s rule from 1982-1990. On Monday Habre will go on trial in Senegal, fulfilling the work of many who say they suffered abuse under his rule and setting a bold precedent for justice in Africa.
For more than a decade after his overthrow, Habre lived freely in Senegal. His easy exile was a symbol of impunity in Africa until he was taken into custody and charged in 2013. Now his trial is a warning to other African dictators that they may be held accountable in Africa for their actions, say human rights experts.
Habre will be tried by the Senegalese courts’ Extraordinary African Chambers. It is the first trial in Africa of a universal jurisdiction case, in which a country’s national courts can prosecute the most serious crimes committed abroad, by a foreigner and against foreign victims, said Human Rights Watch.
