Amnesty International Report 1999 - Chad

CHAD

Hundreds of people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces; many were tortured before being killed. Dozens of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, were held without trial or received unfair trials. Torture and ill-treatment were routine. Prison conditions were harsh; at least one person died in custody. Armed opposition groups were responsible for numerous human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings and hostage-taking.

President Idriss Déby's government continued to face armed opposition in the northern and eastern parts of the country from the Front national du Tchad rénové (FNTR), Renewed National Front of Chad; the Mouvement pour la démocratie et le développement, Movement for Democracy and Development; and the Armée nationale tchadienne en dissidence, Dissident Chadian National Army; and, in the south of the country, from the Forces armées pour la République fédérale (FARF), Armed Forces for the Federal Republic. There were violent clashes between the security forces and armed opposition groups, particularly in the Logone districts.

In May a second peace accord between the government and the FARF officially ended the armed conflict in the south of the country. As with the previous accord, it provided for an amnesty for all members of the FARF and for the integration of its members into the army (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

In April the UN Commission on Human Rights again decided not to transfer consideration of the human rights situation in Chad from the confidential 1503 procedure into the public procedure. In June the European Parliament passed a resolution urging the Chadian authorities to release prisoner of conscience Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban (see below). It also urged the European Council, the European Commission and the member states of the European Union to put pressure on the Chadian government to respect human rights and the rule of law throughout the country, and to suspend military activities in the southern region following the massacre of at least one hundred unarmed civilians in March (see below).

Hundreds of people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces; many were tortured before being killed (see below). Although there was strong evidence that the security forces were responsible, the authorities did not take any action to bring the officers who ordered the massacres to justice. At least 20 people, including women and children, were killed by soldiers in February and March in the Doba region. Soldiers reportedly visited the region several times over a two-day period, shooting and killing unarmed civilians, including village chiefs, and burning down houses, in reprisal for the abduction of four Frenchmen by an armed opposition group (see below).

In March at least 100 people were reportedly killed in a series of massacres by the security forces. As many as 25 people were killed in the villages of Dobara and Lara on 1 March. On 11 March village chiefs and others were summoned to a meeting with the deputy prefect of Benoye, supposedly to discuss taxation. Instead of being received by the local authorities, the village chiefs were arrested by the security forces, who then reportedly shot and killed them and six others by the Logone River. Among them were Gaston Mbaïney and Bemadji Cheflengar, village chiefs from Goré and Ngara Ndoh villages. Three days later soldiers surrounded the village of Talade, where they reportedly tied up 25 people and killed them.

Dozens of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, were held without trial or received unfair trials. Critics of the government, including opposition politicians, journalists and human rights activists, were at serious risk of human rights violations, including death threats and ill-treatment. Some were sentenced to prison terms and heavy fines.

Firmin Nengomnang, a prisoner of conscience held without charge or trial since December 1997 and a member of the Ligue tchadienne des droits de l'homme, Chadian Human Rights League, was released by the Moundou tribunal in January. A week later he was given a two-year suspended sentence and a heavy fine by the same tribunal. The charges related to an article he had published which criticized the Moundou Commissioner of Police (see Amnesty International Report 1998). An appeal against the sentence was pending at the end of the year.

In February Oulatar Begoto and Dieudonné Djonabaye, respectively director and editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper N'Djaména Hebdo, were each given two-year suspended sentences for defamation of the President. The charges related to an article in the newspaper accusing the President of being partisan. Later the same month Dieudonné Djonabaye was detained for several hours and reportedly severely beaten by members of the security forces in a Chadian military barracks.

At least 12 people were arrested in February after four French nationals were taken hostage in the Sarh region by an armed opposition group. All those arrested were reportedly tortured or ill-treated. One of them, Dr Demane Nana, who had been undergoing medical treatment when arrested, died in detention in April. All the detainees came from the Sarh region, an area supposedly loyal to Dr Nahor, leader of an armed opposition group. Some were provisionally released, but at the end of the year four of them – Kono Guoi Nahor Dagal, Adallah Daba, Nadjara Kama and Lagoum Moussa – were still held without charge in Ndjaména. They were possible prisoners of conscience.

In July prisoner of conscience Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban, a member of the National Assembly and a prominent opposition politician, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and a large fine for defamation of President Déby and of the President of the National Assembly, Wadal Abdelkader Kamougué. The sentence was confirmed in December by the N'Djaména Appeal Court. Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban's parliamentary immunity had been lifted by his peers in May. The charges related to an interview given inJuly 1997 in which Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban had accused Wadal Abdelkader Kamougué of accepting money from a French oil company to finance his 1996 election campaign. The two journalists who conducted the interview –Sy Koumbo Singa Gali and Polycarpe Togamissi – were arrested and charged with complicity in the defamation. In June they were convicted and given two-year suspended sentences and ordered to pay large fines before being provisionally released. In December the N'Djaména Appeal Court reduced their sentences to one year and halved their fines. There were serious procedural irregularities in the trials of all three. For example, in the trial of Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban, lawyers for the defence were denied access to the case files until immediately before the hearing at N'Djaména High Court. Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban was given a sentence one year longer than the maximum allowed by Chadian law for defamation, and the fines paid by the two journalists were twice the maximum allowed by law for complicity in defamation.

Following the massacres in March of more than 100 people in the Logone districts by the security forces, the Collectif des associations de défense des droits de l'homme et des syndicats, Collective of Associations for the Defence of Human Rights and Trade Unions, in Moundou called for a two-day, city-wide opération ville morte (general strike and "stayaway"). Fears for the safety of human rights activists, including Dobian Assingar and Julien Beassemda, two human rights defenders, intensified following the success of the opération ville morte. The deputy secretary at the Ministry of the Interior accused the organizations involved in the opération ville morte of calling for insurrection. The government subsequently banned all activities by Chadian human rights organizations and their offices were occupied by members of the security forces. The ban prevented a press conference, organized by local human rights organizations to highlight the deterioration in the human rights situation, from taking place.

In August, five people were released from prolonged detention without charge or trial. Those released included Souleymane Abdallah, the founder member of Alternative 94, a Chadian organization for political debate (see Amnesty International Report 1998); and Altebey Nadjiban, director of a private school in Nguéli, N'Djaména district. Also in August, four children, who were prisoners of conscience, were released. They included 14-year-old Guelngar Olivier and 13-year-old Djimtoloum Joël, who had been arrested in April and accused of collaborating with the enemy.

In October Souleymane Abdallah was rearrested along with another member of Alternative 94, Facho Ballam, a veterinary surgeon. Both were released without charge a few days later.

It was unclear whether the 10 or more political prisoners, including possible prisoners of conscience, arrested in previous years remained in detention without charge or trial or had voluntarily enlisted in the army. The authorities claimed that they had been integrated into the national army, in accordance with the provisions of the 1997 peace accord between the government and the FARF. However, there was no evidence that the detainees were linked to the FARF in any way and there were fears that they may have been forcibly conscripted into the army (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

Torture and ill-treatment by the security forces were frequently reported. Most of those extrajudicially executed in the Logone regions and in Doba in February and in March (see above) were believed to have been tortured. Most were reportedly subjected to the arbatachar method where the victim's arms and legs are tied behind the back, causing extreme pain and leading to open wounds and gangrene in some cases.

Prison conditions remained harsh and amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. One prisoner died in custody in N'Djaména prison, apparently as a result of lack of medical care.

There was no information about the fate or whereabouts of those who "disappeared" in previous years (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses. In February a new armed opposition group, headed by Dr Nahor, was responsible for the abduction of four Frenchmen in the Doba region. The four were freed five days later by members of the Chadian security forces. In March a group of eight French and Italian tourists was taken hostage by the FNTR in the Tibesti, northern Chad. Seven of the hostages were released the following day, but the eighth was kept for five days. The FARF also killed unarmed civilians in February and March in the Logone districts.

An Amnesty International observer attended some of the proceedings in the trials of Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban and the two journalists in May, and met members of the judiciary as well as members of human rights organizations.

Amnesty International called for prisoner of conscience Ngarléjy Yorongar Le Moïban to be immediately and unconditionally released and allowed access to medical care.

The organization urged the authorities to investigate human rights violations, including massacres by the security forces, and to bring those responsible to justice. Amnesty International also expressed concern about human rights abuses against human rights defenders and violations of the right to freedom of expression.