Amnesty International Report 1996 - Chad

Critics and opponents of the government, including possible prisoners of conscience, were detained without charge or trial. Many were tortured or ill-treated. At least four people died in custody, apparently as a result of torture. Government soldiers committed extrajudicial executions. Armed opposition groups were responsible for human rights abuses including deliberate and arbitrary killings and hostage-taking. The government of President Idriss Déby faced continued armed opposition, especially in the south and east, from the Forces armées pour la république fédérale (FARF), Armed Forces for a Federal Republic, the Front National du Tchad (FNT), Chad National Front, and the Mouvement pour la démocratie et le développement (MDD), Movement for Democracy and Development. The referendum over a new constitution and elections due to be held in 1995 (see Amnesty International Report 1995) were postponed after disputes over the electoral census. The Commission nationale des droits de l'homme, National Commission on Human Rights, established in 1994 (see Amnesty International Report 1995), started its operations in March. Composed of governmental and non-governmental representatives, it urged the government to redefine the role of the Agence nationale de sécurité (ANS), National Security Agency, which had a record of serious human rights violations. It also appealed to Prime Minister Koïbla Djimasta to end impunity and to ensure that those responsible for human rights violations were prosecuted. In June Chad acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its (First) Optional Protocol; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Critics and suspected opponents of the government were detained by the ANS and military authorities. They included civilians in areas of conflict as well as opposition political leaders, journalists, human rights activists and suspected members of armed opposition groups. In April dozens of people suspected of supporting the FARF were detained in the Logone Oriental region in the south. They were ill-treated at the barracks of the Rapid Intervention Force, formerly known as the Presidential Guard, in Moundou before being transferred to the Camp des Martyrs Prison in the capital, N'Djaména, and held for over two months without charge or trial. They were released in late June when President Déby decreed an amnesty. Also in April members of the ANS tried to abduct Gatou Ley, a leading member of the Fédération des Logones et Tandjilé de la ligue tchadienne des droits de l'homme des Logones, the Federation of the Logones and Tandjilé of the Chadian Human Rights League. However, the ANS failed in its attempt when neighbours, alerted by the noise, intervened. Gatou Ley lodged a formal complaint against a member of the ANS who, in September, received a one-year suspended sentence and a fine. In June ANS personnel ransacked the offices of the newspaper N'Djaména Hebdo and assaulted members of the newspaper's staff. Yaldet Begoto Oulatar, the publication's director, and Nassar Baloa, a journalist who had been arrested earlier the same day, were beaten with electric cables and sticks at the office before being taken to the ANS headquarters where they were beaten again. They were threatened by ANS interrogators, who demanded that they disclose their sources. They were later released uncharged. This incident occurred after Youssouf Mbodou Bami, the Minister of Communications, and the ANS protested about an article, published in May, criticizing the army's behaviour. At the time, N'Djaména Hebdo's editor-in-chief and publication director had been questioned at the ANS headquarters and told that the authorities would not tolerate the publication of such criticism. At least 19 civilians were arrested in the Logone district in July and accused of collaborating with the FARF. They were held for over two months in harsh conditions at Moundou prison before being transferred to N'Djaména. They were still held without charge or trial at the end of the year. Saleh Kebzabo, president of the opposition party Union nationale pour le développement et le renouveau, National Union for Development and Renewal, was arrested in September and held for five days in N'Djaména before being provisionally released. He was accused of collaborating with the armed opposition, particularly the MDD. His trial had not started by the end of the year. There were further reports of torture, particularly in N'Djaména and the Logone districts, where women were raped by members of the armed forces. In August Guiryéna Madjingué, a farmer from Ngondong village, was tortured in the village of Lolo by members of the Rapid Intervention Force. He was tied in the arbatachar position, where the victim's arms are tied behind the back causing extreme pain and leading to open wounds and gangrene in some cases; had chillis put in his nose, eyes and mouth; and was beaten. He subsequently escaped. Antoine Bangui, leader of the Morenat, a political party, and his son were beaten by members of the Rapid Intervention Force while campaigning in the Logone district in April. At least four prisoners were reported to have been tortured to death. They included Mbaïtarem Nasson, who had been detained in connection with a criminal offence but who was taken from Moundou prison in August to help in an inquiry about FARF activities. After he was caught trying to escape, he was reportedly forced to drink a large amount of water, tied to a tree and had nails hammered into his head. His body was found near the village of Lolo in the Logone Occidental district. Nguétigal, a suspected FARF supporter, was reportedly taken from Moundou prison in August and later found dead. Ndobi Abel, a fisherman, was reportedly tortured at a secret place of detention before being moved to the Moundou Central Hospital, where he died, in October. His body was said to be covered in wounds. No investigations into these deaths were known to have been carried out. The armed forces were reported to have committed extrajudicial executions, notably in the Logone districts, where the victims were alleged FARF supporters. They included Claude Djérataroum, an assistant mechanic, who was extrajudicially executed by soldiers in the village of Ngante-Ngante in May, and Djirandouba Samuel, a fisherman, who was killed in July, three days after being taken from his home in Benoye by soldiers. Both the MDD and the FARF committed human rights abuses including deliberate and arbitrary killings and hostage-taking. Three foreign nationals working for the UN Development Programme were taken hostage by the MDD in March; they were released after two weeks. In June, at least two people were deliberately and arbitrarily killed in the Logone district by FARF forces. In April Amnesty International published a report, Chad: Empty promises – Human rights violations continue with impunity, which documented human rights abuses since 1993. The organization urged the authorities to take effective measures to safeguard human rights and to bring to justice those responsible for violating these rights. Amnesty International also urged foreign governments to use all means at their disposal to ensure that transfers of equipment, skills and training of personnel to Chadian military, security or police forces did not facilitate torture, "disappearances" and political killings. 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 confidential consideration of communications about human rights violations.