NEW YORK -- The greatest contribution Gen. Augusto Pinochet has made to the rule of international law and to the reign of justice goes beyond his rightful detention in Britain, something never even imagined by Chile's most powerful dictator. Rather, it is to have made real the validity of extraterritoriality in judging crimes of torture and murder. A case in point -- probably the first aside from Pinochet's case -- is now that of the exiled dictator of Chad, Hissene Habre, recently indicted in Senegal on charges of torture and "barbarity." This is the first time that a former head of state has been charged in Africa for human-rights violations by the court of another country.
During Habre's eight-year rule in Chad, a country in West Africa with a population of 6 million, his secret policy allegedly killed 40,000 people, and tortured 200,000 between 1982 and 1990. In addition, an undetermined number of people disappeared, never to be seen again. The criminal charges against Habre are being filed by seven Chadians, in concert with the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crime, which represents 792 people.
In spite of his systematic human-rights abuses, Habre had the support of both France and the United States because he opposed Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan leader. Habre was deposed by Idriss Deby, Chad's current president who, although initially the head of a military government, held open elections, which he won in 1996. Habre fled to Senegal, where he has been living since 1990. Deby established a truth commission, which has gathered the main evidence against Habre. Several organizations, among them the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, led by Human Rights Watch have filed an abuse complaint against Habre.