Chad’s most famous political prison, a hotbed of torture during the Hissène Habré regime, has just been demolished, as has the headquarters of the Documentation and Security Directorate. The place should have been transformed into a museum.
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Several witnesses observed last week the presence of a bulldozer on the site of the “swimming pool” and the headquarters of the Directorate of Documentation and Security (DDS), the political police of the Habré regime. From this place located within the premises of the presidency, all that remains is flat land, noted Tuesday the transition deputy Clément Abaïfouta, former president of the association of victims of regime of Hissène Habré.
Clément Abaïfouta had written to President Mahamat Idriss Déby to ask for the work to be stopped and to recall the promises made to the victims, from the resolutions of the 1993 national conference to those of the 2022 dialogue, to transform the place into a museum. This was also decided by the Chadian justice system during the conviction of twenty former torturers of the regime in 2015. “ Work had been ordered by Idriss Déby and funds disbursed, but nothing was done and the money went elsewhere », deplores Clément Abaïfouta.
In the 1980s, the DDS transformed this swimming pool dating from the colonial era into a place of detention and torture. Thousands of people lost their lives there, and the abuses committed there led to the conviction of Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity in 2016 during a historic trial in Dakar.
The authorities have so far not communicated on the subject. The presidency would like to use this space to build a parking lot or a new building. The survivors, for their part, see this destruction as a new affront to the victims, and recall that the compensation promised during the trial of Hissène Habré – some 82 million CFA francs – has still not been paid.
To me, this is scandalous. And it’s a shame for Chad.
Me Jacqueline Moudeïna, lead lawyer for victims of the Hissène Habré regime