Folks, this is good news to victims and a warning to dictators and tyrants.
You may hold us hostage today, but we shall catch up with you tomorrow.  No
place is far and no hide-out is safe.  You shall be snatched from anywhere
when the time comes.  Please read on from AllAfrica.com.


Human Rights Watch to Honor Africa Justice Activist

Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)

PRESS RELEASE
November 8, 2002
Posted to the web November 8, 2002

New York

On November 13, Human Rights Watch will give its highest recognition to
Souleymane Guengueng, a torture victim who leads the campaign to bring the
former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, to justice. Guengueng’s pioneering
effort seeks to break the cycle of impunity on the war-torn African
continent.

Founder of the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and
Crime (AVCRP), Souleymane Guengueng has worked to record and publicize the
atrocities of Habré’s regime (1982-1990). Habré lives in exile in Senegal,
where he was indicted two years ago on charges of torture and crimes against
humanity, after a complaint filed by the AVCRP with the support of a
coalition led by Human Rights Watch. Habré's victims are now seeking his
extradition from Senegal to stand trial in Belgium.

"Souleymane has harnessed his own suffering into a campaign to break the
cycle of impunity that has plagued his country and all of Africa," said Reed
Brody, Human Rights Watch’s special counsel for prosecutions. "In the
process, he has set a vital precedent so that the voices of victims can be
heard loud and clear."

Souleymane, falsely accused of supporting Habré’s opposition, was arrested
on August 3, 1988. He almost died of dengue fever during two years of
mistreatment in Habré's prisons and watched hundreds of others succumb to
malaria, exhaustion, malnutrition and torture. Freed as Habré fled the
country on December 1, 1990, Souleymane and other former prisoners founded
the AVCRP, which gathered testimony from 792 victims, widows and orphans,
hoping to use them to bring Habré to justice and win compensation for the
victims or their survivors. When many of Habré's accomplices were given key
positions in the new government, however, Souleymane hid the files
underneath the mud-brick home where he lives with the 24 members of his
family, including nine children. That is where the files stayed for eight
years until Souleymane handed them to a Human Rights Watch researcher in
1999 for use in the case against Hissène Habré.

As The New York Times said in its moving portrait of Souleymane and his
work, "on a continent where ordinary men are tortured, killed and forgotten
without a second thought, Mr. Guengueng, has done something extraordinary:
fought back. After being unjustly imprisoned and tortured for two years in
the late 1980's, he spent the next decade gathering testimony from fellow
victims and their families.

The evidence provided critical material for Chadian and international human
rights organizations to pursue a case against the country's former dictator,
Hissene Habre." (http://www.hrw.org/french/themes/habre-NYtimes-SG.html).

France’s Liberation said, "a surprising tug of war pits this modest civil
servant against the ex-dictator who bathed his country in blood."

Background: Hissène Habré ruled the former French colony of Chad from 1982
until he was deposed in 1990 by current President Idriss Déby and fled to
Senegal. His one-party regime, marked by widespread atrocities, was backed
by the United States and France. Habré launched several campaigns against
ethnic groups such as the Sara (1984), the Hadjerai (1987) and the Zaghawa
(1989), killing and arresting leaders and extended families and even
destroying whole communities when he perceived that the groups were hostile
to his regime.

Habré was indicted and placed under house arrest in Senegal two years ago on
charges of torture and crimes against humanity before the Senegalese courts
ruled that he could not be tried there. Habré's victims are now seeking his
extradition to stand trial in Belgium, and Senegal has agreed to hold him
pending an extradition request. A Belgian judge recently visited Chad to
investigate the charges against Habré’s. Guengueng and his colleagues have
also brought criminal proceedings against Habré’s henchmen who remain in
Chad.

But the victims face real dangers in their quest. The victims' Chadian
lawyer, Jacqueline Moudeina, was severely injured in a grenade attack.
Souleymane Guengueng was suspended from his job just after the Belgian
judge's visit for engaging in 'political activity' and has been tailed by
uniformed men.

More information on the Habré case can be found at
http://www.hrw.org/justice/habre/. Souleymane

For more information, please contact:

In New York, Reed Brody: +1-212-216-1206 Olivier Bercault: +1-212-216-1275








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