Amnesty International Report 1998 - Chad

(This report covers the period January-December 1997) Scores of people were extrajudicially executed. Scores of suspected opponents and critics of the government, some of them prisoners of conscience, were detained without charge or trial. Human rights defenders and others received death threats from the security forces. Torture and ill-treatment were widespread. Prison conditions often amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Armed opposition groups were responsible for grave human rights abuses. The forces of President Idriss Déby's government faced armed opposition, mainly in the south and east of the country, from the Forces armées pour la République fédérale (farf), Armed Forces for the Federal Republic, the Front national du Tchad (fnt), Chad National Front, the Front national du Tchad rénové (fntr), Renewed National Front of Chad, the Armée nationale tchadienne en dissidence (antd), Dissident Chadian National Army, and the Mouvement pour la démocratie et le développement (mdd), Movement for Democracy and Development. These armed opposition groups were responsible for serious human rights abuses against the civilian population, and the security forces committed grave human rights violations during counter-insurgency operations. A peace accord was signed in April between the government and the farf. It provided an amnesty to all members of the farf and for the integration of its members into the army. The UN Commission on Human Rights decided in April not to transfer consideration of the human rights situation in Chad from the confidential "1503 procedure" into the public procedure. The European Parliament passed a strong resolution on Chad in February, condemning the deteriorating human rights situation, calling on Chad to release all political prisoners, and urging European Union member states to ensure that military aid to Chad was not used to commit human rights violations. In November the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights examined the first periodic report of Chad. Legislative elections took place in January and February, ending the transition period initiated in 1993. In March the cour d'appel, Court of Appeal, declared the majority of seats to have been won by the Mouvement patriotique du salut (mps), the presidential party In February the government annulled the shoot-to-kill policy issued in 1996, which instructed members of the gendarmerie to extrajudicially execute people caught in the act of committing a crime (see Amnesty International Report 1997). However, this instruction was not followed by the security forces and scores of extrajudicial executions were reported. Between March and June, for example, at least seven suspected robbers were extrajudicially executed. In one case in the Ouaddai in June, two suspects were taken out of custody and killed by the security forces. Suspected members of the opposition were also extrajudicially executed. In October the security forces shot dead several dozen people when they opened fire on people registering in Moundou in accordance with the peace accord signed between the government and the farf. In the following days the security forces combed Moundou and neighbouring areas and extrajudicially executed many unarmed civilians whom they suspected of being farf members. The victims included Laougoussou Nguirayo Etienne and Nguirayo Thimotée, respectively father and grand-father of the national executive secretary of the farf, and Nanglar, aged 80, whose body was found in the Logone river. A number of those killed were tortured by the "arbatachar" method, whereby the arms are tied behind the back in a painful position. Several mutilated and unrecognizable bodies were retrieved from the Chari and Logone rivers during the year: evidence indicated that the victims had suffered the "arbatachar" and had been extrajudicially executed by the security forces. A man who escaped extrajudicial execution in January said he had been arrested by gendarmes in N'Djaména on suspicion of stealing a carpet. Ten days later he was taken from his cell and driven with two other prisoners to the River Chari. There, he said, gendarmes pushed them into the river, with their wrists and ankles bound. He survived because he managed to loosen his bonds, but believed the two others had drowned. Scores of suspected opponents and critics of the government, including activists in non-governmental organizations and human rights groups, were detained without charge or trial. Some were arrested and held for short periods. Tohnel Doumro, an employee of Secours catholique pour le développement (secadev), Catholic Aid for Development, who had been arrested in November 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997), was released in February without charge. Mahamat Abdelhaq, chairman of the Abéché section of the Association tchadienne pour la promotion et la défense des droits de l'homme (atpdh), Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, who had been arrested in December 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997), was also released without charge in February. However, he was warned by gendarmes that if he did not "keep quiet" he would be rearrested Firmin Nengomnang, a member of the Ligue tchadienne des droits de l'homme (ltdh), Chadian Human Rights League, was arrested in Moundou in December for a critical article published in July 1997 in the newspaper Le Temps about the commissioner of police of Moundou. Firmin Nengomnang had been assaulted, threatened with execution and beaten with rifle butts in February by members of Chadian security forces, including the commanding officer of the Chadian National Army at Penzengué in Logone Oriental. At the end of the year, Firmin Nengomnang was still held without charge and trial. Following the October incidents in Moundou, at least 20 people were arrested in Moundou and N'Djaména. Some were released but at least five remained in detention at the end of the year. They were accused of "intelligence with the enemy". The people still detained at the end of the year included Danimbaye Kaïna Nodji and Souleymane Abdallah, the founder member of Alternative 94, a Chadian organization for political debate. At least 20 political prisoners, including possible prisoners of conscience, arrested in previous years were in detention without charge or trial at the start of the year. Two of them were released and a few escaped from prison, but at least 10 remained in detention and were forcibly integrated into the army. Also held without charge or trial until they were forcibly integrated into the army were Etienne Tamlar, Valentin Djélassem and Moïse Nodjimadji, who had been arrested in the two Logone regions between July and October 1995 on suspicion of collaborating with armed opposition groups. Human rights defenders, including members of Tchad Non Violence, Chad Non-Violence, and the ltdh, as well as journalists, continued to be threatened by the security forces. Some, including Abdallah Issa Idriss, President of the regional branch of the ltdh at Faya Largeau, received death threats. Lazare Tikri Serge, General Secretary of Tchad Non Violence, was attacked in February by members of the Agence nationale de sécurité (ans), National Security Agency In September Sosthène Ngargoune, President of the Union des journalistes tchadiens, Chadian Union of Journalists, was severely beaten by members of the security forces whom he was interviewing in the offices of the gendarmerie in Moundou. The attack was led by former members of the farf who had been integrated into the army. They also threatened to kill human rights activists Dobian Assingar and Julien Beassemda. Torture and ill-treatment by the security forces were frequently reported. Virtually all political prisoners and many criminal suspects were subjected to the "arbatachar", beatings and other forms of torture. Information emerged about the death in custody of Mahamat Ahmat Hanat. He was reportedly tortured to death at the Fourth District police station in N'Djaména in November 1996. Prison conditions remained so harsh that they often amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Three detainees who escaped from Faya Largeau said that they had been bound with chains for the first three months of their detention. They said that food was inadequate, sanitation virtually non-existent, and that they were forced to work for the French military aid mission at Faya Largeau. Past cases of "disappearances" remained unresolved. There was no news of Mahamat Fadil, director general of the police under former President Hissein Habré, and two members of the mdd. The three men were arrested by officials in Niger and handed over to the Chadian authorities in November 1996. Nor was any information forthcoming about four people, including Ibrahim Souleymane, who "disappeared" in August 1996 after they were handed over to the Chadian authorities by the Sudanese authorities (see Amnesty International Report 1997). Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses. Several unarmed civilians, both men and women, were tortured by the farf during the year. In February Joséphine Béasimbaye, Gabriel Yoramgam, Salomon Béaloum and Ibrahim Laoutoudji were tortured by members of the farf. The same month Joseph Mbaïyaoel died of his injuries following ill-treatment by the farf. Members of the farf also killed a number of unarmed civilians deliberately and arbitrarily. In February Laurent Beram and Bekande, from the village of Mbikou in Logone Oriental, were killed by the farf. At around the same time Souleymane Ali, a cattle farmer from Donian, Logone Oriental, was also killed by the farf. After the Moundou incidents in October, farf members killed at least a dozen unarmed civilians and wounded several others. In March Amnesty International published Chad: Hope betrayed, which documented systematic human rights violations and called on the Chadian authorities and the international community to improve the human rights situation in Chad. Amnesty International also called on armed opposition groups to take steps to end torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings. Amnesty International urged the UN Commission on Human Rights to transfer consideration of Chad's human rights record to the public scrutiny procedure, but without success. The organization called on members of the international community to condemn military, security and police transfers that contributed to the continuation of human rights violations in Chad, and appealed in particular to the governments of the People's Republic of China, France and the usa regarding military equipment supplied by them which had aggravated the human rights situation in Chad. In April Amnesty International representatives and other human rights activists met President Déby and urged him to promote respect for human rights in Chad