N’DJAMENA, Chad, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch published a 714-page report Tuesday suggesting the Chadian government of Hissene Habre was responsible for systematic abuses.
"We found that Habre directed and controlled the political police, who tortured and killed those who opposed him or those who simply belonged to the wrong ethnic group," Olivier Bercault, the report's author, said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch found the Habre administration, which lasted from 1982-90, had an iron grip over a much-feared political police squad suspected of arbitrary arrests and other abuses.
"Habre wasn't a distant ruler who ignored the massive atrocities carried out in his name," Bercault said.
A tribunal formed in Senegal charged Habre with crimes against humanity and car crimes. He's in detention in Senegal while the tribunal's investigation continues. Human Rights Watch said there are five other suspects close to Habre, two of whom are in prison in Chad. The others remain at large.
Human Rights Watch said its report is not an indictment of Habre or his administration. His guilt or innocence will be decided by the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal.
The former president was charged with committing human rights abuses by a Belgium court in 2005.
