A group of alleged victims of former Chadian dictator and genocide accused Hissene Habre have filed for compensation in Senegal, where he has been in exile for over two decades. The complainants "filed civil party complaints on Monday, July 15", to the criminal tribunal set up in Senegal to try Habre, said New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday, without specifying how many people were involved.
Habre, 70, once dubbed "Africa's Pinochet", faces accusations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture in Chad, where rights groups say that some 40,000 people were killed during his brutal eight-year rule between 1982 and 1990. Chad's Commission of Inquiry into Habre's alleged crimes, set up after he fled, estimates only 4,000 of these have ever been identified.
Arrested in early July, the former dictator was placed in pre-trial detention in Dakar where he is to stand trial after years of delays by the Senegalese government. Victims are to receive compensation from wealth accumulated by Habre, allegedly stolen from government funds, Chad's justice minister said last week.
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