Deep VIEW
Talking about Rose :
Justice and Memory in Chad
Reed Brody * Human rights lawyer and author of To Catch a Dictator : The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré
* Reed Brody has worked alongside the victims of the former dictator of Chad , Hissène Habré – who was convicted of crimes against humanity in Senegal – and in the cases of Augusto Pinochet and Jean- Claude “ Baby Doc ” Duvalier , and currently works with victims of Gambia ’ s Yahya Jammeh and of Saudi Arabia ’ s Prince Mohammed bin Salman . His book about the Habré case , To Catch a Dictator , was published in November 2022 by Columbia University Press .
As we descended the staircase into the most notorious underground prison of Chad ’ s former dictator Hissène Habré , I could tell from the pervasive cobwebs that no one had been down there in years . The “ Piscine ” had once been a colonial swimming pool , reserved for the families of French soldiers . Habré perversely had the pool covered with a concrete roof and divided it into ten cells where the “ DDS ”, his political police , crammed together hundreds of desperate prisoners of the Zaghawa ethnic group , men like Ismael Hachim , who was now leading me down the stairs .
Habré had taken power in Chad in 1982 with American support as bulwark against Libya ’ s Muammar Gaddafi , and was finally overthrown in 1990 and fled across the continent to Senegal . Hachim had survived the Piscine and was now the president of the victims ’ association , and I was representing the victims on behalf of Human Rights Watch . In 2000 , inspired by the London arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet , on whose case I had also worked , we filed a criminal case against Habré in Senegal . And now in 2001 , we were looking to build that case and discover the truth about Habré ’ s crimes .
In a few cells , tally marks on the walls recorded the prisoners ’ days in detention . In other places , detainees had written heartbreaking messages in Arabic or French , Chad ’ s two national languages . “ Man is made for death and suffering ”, one of the etchings said . The cells were twelve feet high , with a small opening at the top for air and light .
In theory , the macabre Piscine dungeon was now off limits because
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Observing Memories Issue 6