Amnesty International Report 1994 - Chad

Hundreds of unarmed civilians were extrajudicially executed by government forces, some in areas affected by armed conflict and scores of others when soldiers fired automatic weapons and rockets at demonstrators. More than 220 opponents of the government were arrested and detained without trial. They included prisoners of conscience. Most detainees were held incommunicado; many were tortured or ill-treated. Several detainees "disappeared" in security force custody. Two soldiers convicted of murder in 1992 remained under sentence of death, but no executions were reported. The government of President Idriss Déby faced repeated challenges to its authority, both from armed opposition groups and from popular protests against the state of the economy and human rights violations. Armed conflict continued in several parts of the country between government forces and various armed opposition groups. One rebel leader, former minister Abbas Koty, who returned to Chad in August 1993 after he and the government signed a peace agreement, was shot dead in October in the capital, N'Djamena. The authorities said he was killed while resisting arrest for plotting to overthrow the government. Unofficial sources said he was extrajudicially executed. He had defected from the government in June 1992 and left the country. He had been detained for several months in Cameroon before he escaped to Libya in early 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Armed clashes between government forces and the Mouvement pour la démocratie et le développement (MDD), Movement for Democracy and Development, continued intermittently in the western Lake Chad region. In the east of the country, armed rebels loyal to Abbas Koty carried out sporadic raids. In the south there were repeated armed clashes between government troops and rebels loyal to Moïse Ketté, a former senior official of President Déby's Mouvement patriotique du salut (MPS), Patriotic Movement for Salvation. Members of armed opposition groups were reported to have carried out abuses against known or suspected government supporters. For example, in southern Chad rebels loyal to Moïse Ketté were reported to have been deliberately killed or abducted Muslim civilians from the north. The rebel action sparked off intercommunal violence in several southern towns. There were also attacks on civilians by armed gangs, some of them thought to be rebels, in the eastern prefecture of Ouaddaï. In one such attack on 4 August, about 80 members of the Ouaddaï community at Chokoyam, 100 kilometres east of Ouaddaï's capital, Abéché, were killed. More than 800 prominent Chadians, including representatives of human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations, attended a sovereign National Conference in N'Djamena from mid-January to early April to debate Chad's political future and introduce measures to engender respect for human rights. The conference was called by various political parties and convened by the government. It elected a transitional National Assembly to supervise the government's implementation of the conference's decisions during a one-year period to precede a multi-party general election. The National Conference ended with the election of a new Prime Minister, Dr Fidel Moungar, previously Minister of Education. The National Conference adopted a number of resolutions on human rights. It demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners and compensation for victims of human rights abuses, as well as an end to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions. The conference called for all members of the security forces responsible for human rights violations to be brought to justice and for commissions of inquiry to be set up to investigate such crimes and establish responsibility. The National Conference also called on the transitional government to give greater support to the judiciary, assist non-governmental human rights groups and ratify all major human rights treaties and ensure their implementation. Some recommendations, such as the abolition of special courts and of the security police, known as the Centre de recherche et de coordination de renseignements, Centre for Research and Coordination of Intelligence, were implemented in May and June. However, no political prisoners were released and the security forces continued to violate human rights with impunity. The Prime Minister, who was nominally officially responsible for the administration and management of the security forces, was in practice unable to exercise such powers. Within months of the end of the National Conference a power struggle had developed between President Déby and Prime Minister Moungar. It culminated in November with the replacement of the Prime Minister by Delwa Kassiré Coumakoye, then Minister of Justice. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were extrajudicially executed by the security forces. In the south of the country, where rebels loyal to Moïse Ketté were active, the security forces killed at least 300 unarmed men, women and children in the first half of the year. In January, at least 45 civilians were indiscriminately killed by members of the Republican Guard, an army unit directly responsible to President Déby. The wave of killings began on 21 January, in Goré, a town in Logone Oriental prefecture, after an unsuccessful attempt by the army to capture Moïse Ketté. Soldiers reportedly burned several villages to the ground and killed entire families. Among the dead was Matthieu Ndotoloum, a Protestant pastor. In February a government commission of inquiry investigated the killings but concluded that the army was not responsible. A request by the Chairman of the National Conference that a new commission composed of government officials and National Conference representatives be sent to the area was rejected by the government without explanation. In February four soldiers and a local pastor, Jacques Diedje, were arrested near Doba. Jacques Diedje died on 22 February as a result of beatings; the four soldiers "disappeared". On 23 February four unarmed men were gunned down by soldiers near Goré. On 16 March soldiers using heavy weaponry and rockets killed 26 people in the village of Bebou. On 5 April a further group of at least 100 civilians was massacred in three villages in Logone Oriental prefecture. In one village soldiers separated the men from the women and children, on the pretext of carrying out a population census, then shot them. In another village soldiers shot or cut the throats of 18 people. In a third village the military surrounded people in the market and opened fire - apparently without provocation. In mid-April the government established after the National Conference sent a new commission of inquiry to investigate reports of atrocities committed by the army since January. The commission was composed of government and security officials, including the Minister of Defence, members of independent human rights groups and journalists. The commission's official report confirmed that at least 300 extrajudicial executions had occurred. It said that local people blamed the Republican Guard for the killings but did not confirm that the unit was responsible. However, a report published by human rights groups which participated in the inquiry put most of the blame on the Republican Guard. The commission recommended that those responsible for the killings be brought to justice and army units be replaced by the gendarmerie. However, no soldiers had been brought to justice by the end of the year, although some commanders were reportedly removed from the area. Political violence was not confined to the south of the country. In Ouaddaï, there were repeated reports of killings, looting and other human rights violations by the security forces, directed against members of the local Ouaddaï community. On 8 August more than 60 demonstrators were killed by the security forces during clashes at a demonstration by members of the Ouaddaï community in N'Djamena. The demonstrators were protesting at the government's failure to protect ordinary people from killings and other abuses. Soldiers attacked the demonstrators, some of whom were armed, using automatic weapons and rockets. Some civilians not involved in the demonstration were reportedly shot in their homes. A pattern of incommunicado detention of political detainees, none of whom were brought to trial, continued during 1993. For example, Moussa Ben Moussa, a nurse, was arrested in March in the southern town of Moundou. He was accused of links with Moïse Ketté and taken to N'Djamena, where he was held incommunicado in the presidential palace. He was freed in May without having been referred to the judicial authorities. At least 220 people, including 30 youths aged between 14 and 17, were arrested and held for several weeks in the aftermath of the 8 August demonstration. Many were reportedly held at the gendarmerie headquarters, although a substantial number were held incommunicado at an unknown location. On 10 August, three well-known representatives of the Ouaddaï community in N'Djamena - Outhman Issa, Imam Ahmat Abaker and Mahamat Zalba - were arrested. They and others arrested appeared to be prisoners of conscience. They were released without charge or trial before the end of the month. At least 30 civilians and soldiers accused of supporting Abbas Koty were detained in October and still held incommunicado without trial at the end of the year. Those detained included Ibrahim Kossi, a businessman, who had previously been detained for five months in 1992 after Abbas Koty defected (see Amnesty International Report 1993). It was unclear whether political detainees arrested during 1992 were still held at the end of 1993. The authorities did not reveal whether suspected supporters of Abbas Koty, including Captain Amine Youssouf Oumar, were released when Abbas Koty returned to Chad (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Torture and ill-treatment of detainees, most of whom were held incommunicado, were widespread. No allegations of torture were independently investigated. Reports from former detainees and other sources indicated that most detainees were routinely beaten at the time of their arrest and during interrogation. Some were reportedly given electric shocks or subjected to a method known as arbatachar, 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. For example, Mahamat Saleh Issakha, a member of the Ouaddaï community, who was arrested without warrant by members of the Republican Guard on 12 July and held for 48 hours, said he had been subjected to beatings and arbatachar. After his release he reported that he had seen six unidentified detainees in custody. The authorities did not reveal the identities or the legal status of these detainees and they were believed to be still held incommunicado at the end of the year. Several detainees "disappeared" in military custody. Among them were four soldiers arrested in the vicinity of Doba in February, including Lieutenant Sérayohim Doyo, and four women taken away by soldiers near Goré, also in February. Two soldiers convicted of murder in 1992 remained under sentence of death. The court martial which convicted them, and the Special Court of Justice, both of whose procedures did not satisfy international fair trial standards, were abolished in June as recommended by the National Conference. No judicial executions or further death sentences were reported. In January Amnesty International made a public appeal to National Conference delegates and the government to take immediate action to protect human rights. The appeal was broadcast on national television and radio and published by Chad's leading national newspaper. In April Amnesty International published a report, Chad: Never again? Killings continue into the 1990s, and launched an international campaign against continuing human rights violations in Chad. The report documented violations committed since 1990 and drew attention to the failure of President Déby's government to end the brutal legacy inherited from the dictatorship of Hissein Habré. The report contained a series of recommendations to the government, urging it to take immediate steps to end three decades of grave human rights violations. It also called on foreign governments which assist Chad's security forces - particularly France - to press for an end to the killings and for public accountability. Later in April, after learning of a new wave of killings by the army, Amnesty International published a report, Chad: Amnesty International calls for a full inquiry into army killings in the South in 1993. Throughout the year the organization urged the government to investigate extrajudicial executions and to bring those responsible to justice. In April Amnesty International submitted information about its concerns in Chad for UN review under a procedure established by Economic and Social Council Resolutions 728f/1503, for consideration of communications about human rights violations. In an oral statement to the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in August, Amnesty International included reference to its concerns in Chad.