Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Brussels, on US-backed Chadian dictator Hissène Habré who fell from power in 1990 and is the subject of a new documentary, The Dictator Hunter:
Hissène Habré was a local warlord in Chad, which is a Central African country just south of Libya. And at the time, Ronald Reagan—when Ronald Reagan came into office, he was looking for ways to counter Muammar Gaddafi’s expansionist designs on Chad. And the very first covert operation of the Reagan era, before the Contras, before Jonas Savimbi, was putting Hissène Habré into power, even though he had a reputation for brutality [40,000 killed due to torture and murder.]
The case proves that leaders of any country, including Western nations such as Britain, America and Israel, could be prosecuted for war crimes or the funding and support of regimes that commit abuses. That day is coming sooner than many people would like to admit.
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