The former president of Chad is accused of human rights abuses committed when he was president. Alas, he is undoubtedly guilty... but he is not alone in that. Not all of the corpses dumped in the Chari river had been killed on his orders: the movement led by his main rival Goukouni Weddeye also wasted people in an insouciant sort of way. Those of pro-Libyan views didn't want to admit it, but it was so.
Habré is an exceptionally tough character. I can't claim to know him but have come across him two or three times. The first occasion was many years ago, when he and his movement were in exile over the border in Libya. As well as being very tough he is intelligent and articulate, and the interview was a pleasant experience as these things go. Later I saw him again in a press conference. Press subs being what they are, my piece about him alleged that he had a 'strong Canadian accent'.
He knew the AFP correspondent and addressed him by name.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 31 May 16 at 13:08
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It's hard to resist being impressed by someone who is smart, tough a an old boot and capable of almost anything.
I don't know what Hissène's native language is (not hard to find out) but like many Africans he certainly speaks three or four. He is fluent in French, the language we had in common, with a harsh, staccato diction. Do not trifle with this cat, the snarling speech said all too clearly. One more dead enemy will be nothing to him.
(I exaggerate of course, boastfully. Really foreign hacking is an easy, relaxed métier for idle, cowardly, inquisitive individuals with the gift of the gab).
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 31 May 16 at 17:41
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You have met some interesting people in your live Armel.
I bet you could write a book about it or talk over a bottle of Genever.
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Habré first came to public attention when he kidnapped a French archaeologist, Mme Claustre, and two other people, then naming a very large ransom. Of the two men captured with her, one was released and the other escaped. Mme Claustre's husband Pierre also went to negotiate his wife's release, and was captured in his turn. A French military intelligence officer, a Major Galopin, tried to negotiate their release but was murdered or 'executed' by the impatient Hissène.
In the end Muammar Gaddafi got the Claustres out, very likely at least partly by paying a biggish ransom.
I used to know all this stuff in tedious detail, but after all this time I have to resort to Wiki, mainly to get the dates right.
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>> resort to Wiki,
but if you do, be prepared for a very dispiriting narrative. Hissene is a remarkably bad cat. Sort of one thing leading to another, but there's a very significant voluntarist element.
I had forgotten all the support from reactionary right wing countries, and the hostility from lefty bien-pensant ones.
Hissene has charisma though. Despite the thousands of murders, he can be agreeable, humorous company in a menacing way.
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It occurs to me that these warlords must often want to swat silly naive hacks like insects, as they are so used to doing with others who incur their displeasure.
However even the most thuggish have some idea of the value of positive publicity; and weapons and ammo come largely, if often indirectly, from western countries.
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>> or talk over a bottle of Genever.
I would enjoy that Dutchie. Nice stuff that Genever, harmless up to a certain point.
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Armel dear boy, you and Dutchie seem to be getting on well, but do let him get a word in old hand!
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>> do let him get a word in old hand!
I'm not trying to swamp the Dutchman with information. It's more that one memory leads to others, and so on. Of course this stuff is of more interest to me than to others. No doubt I am being a bore... sorry. But it was quite vivid at the time and is still bubbling away in the old unconscious.
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Hissène Habré - Armel Coussine
