Hissène Habré Hissène Habré ( حسين حبري ; born 13 September 1942 ) , also spelled Hissen Habré , was the leader of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 . Early life . Habré was born in 1942 in Faya - Largeau , northern Chad , then a colony of France . He was born into a family of shepherds . He is a member of the Anakaza branch of the Daza ethnic group , which is itself a branch of the Toubou ethnic group . After primary schooling , he obtained a post in the French colonial administration , where he impressed his superiors and gained a scholarship to study in France , at the Institute of Overseas Higher Studies in Paris . He completed a university degree in political science in Paris , and returned to Chad in 1971 . He also obtained several other degrees and earned his Doctorate from the Institute . After a further brief period of government service as a deputy prefect , he visited Tripoli and joined the National Liberation Front of Chad ( FROLINAT ) where he became a commander in the Second Liberation Army of FROLINAT along with Goukouni Oueddei . After Abba Siddick assumed the leadership of FROLINAT , the Second Liberation Army , first under Oueddei ' s command and then under Habré ' s , split from FROLINAT and became the Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North ( CCFAN ) . In 1976 Oueddei and Habré quarreled and Habré split his newly named Armed Forces of the North ( " Forces Armées du Nord " or FAN ) from Goukouni ' s followers who adopted the name of People ' s Armed Forces ( " Forces Armées Populaires " or FAP ) . Both FAP and FAN operated in the extreme north of Chad , drawing their fighters from the Toubou nomadic people . Habré first came to international attention when a group under his command attacked the town of Bardaï in Tibesti , on 21 April 1974 , and took three Europeans hostage , with the intention of ransoming them for money and arms . The captives were a German physician , Dr . Christoph Staewen ( whose wife Elfriede was killed in the attack ) , and two French citizens , Françoise Claustre , an archeologist , and Marc Combe , a development worker . Staewen was released on 11 June 1974 after significant payments by West German officials . Combe escaped in 1975 , but despite the intervention of the French Government , Claustre ( whose husband was a senior French government official ) was not released until 1 February 1977 . Habré split with Oueddei , partly over this hostage - taking incident ( which became known as the " Claustre affair " in France ) . Rise to power . On 29 August 1978 , Habré was given the post of prime minister of Chad , replacing Félix Malloum in that position ; Malloum had been both prime minister and president since 1975 . Habré ' s term as prime minister ended , however , a year later , when Malloum ' s government ended . Elections brought Goukouni Oueddei to the presidency . Habré deposed Oueddei in a coup on 7 June 1982 , and the FAN leader became president ; the post of prime minister was abolished . There followed a period of turmoil . Rule . Habré seized power in Chad and ruled from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by Idriss Déby . Habré ' s one party regime was characterized by widespread human rights abuses and atrocities . He denies killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents although in 2012 , the UN ' s International Court of Justice ( ICJ ) ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him to face justice overseas . Following his rise to power , Habré created a secret police force known as the Documentation and Security Directorate ( DDS ) , under which opponents of Habré were tortured and executed . Some methods of torture commonly used by the DDS included ; burning with incandescent objects , spraying of gas into the eyes , ears , and nose ; forced swallowing of water , and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars . Habré ' s government periodically engaged in ethnic cleansing against groups such as the Sara , Hadjerai and the Zaghawa , killing and arresting group members in masses when it perceived that their leaders posed a threat to the regime . Habré fled to Senegal after being overthrown in 1990 . He was placed under house arrest in 2005 until his arrest in 2013 . Some human rights groups called him " Africa ' s Pinochet " . He is accused of war crimes and torture during his eight years in power in Chad , where rights groups say that some 40 , 000 people were killed under his rule . War with Libya . Libya invaded Chad on July 1980 in an attempt to drive out Habré , occupying and annexing the Aozou Strip . The United States and France responded by aiding Chad in an attempt to contain Libya ' s regional ambitions under Libyan leader Muammar al - Gaddafi . Civil war deepened . On 15 December 1980 , Libya occupied all of northern Chad , but Habré defeated Libyan troops and drove them out in November 1981 . In 1983 , Libyan troops occupied all of the country north of Koro Toro . The United States used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti - Gaddafi force . Habré ' s aid from the USA and France helped him to win the war against Gaddafi ' s Libya . The Libyan occupation of the north of Koro Toro ended when Habré defeated him in 1987 . By that time , the war was beginning to end , and had ended by 1988 . Despite this victory , Habré ' s government was weak , and strongly opposed by members of the Zaghawa ethnic group . A rebel offensive in November 1990 , which was led by Idriss Déby , a Zaghawa former army commander who had participated in a plot against Habré in 1989 and subsequently fled to Sudan , defeated Habré ' s forces . The French chose not to assist Habré on this occasion , allowing him to be ousted ; it is possible that they actively aided Déby . Explanation and speculation regarding the reasons for France ' s abandonment of Habré include the adoption of a policy of non - interference in intra - Chadian conflicts , dissatisfaction with Habré ' s unwillingness to move towards multiparty democracy , and favoritism by Habré towards American rather than French companies with regard to oil development . Habré fled to Cameroon , and the rebels entered N ' Djamena on 2 December 1990 ; Habré subsequently went into exile in Senegal . Support of the U . S . A and France . The United States and France supported Habré , seeing him as a bulwark against the Gaddafi government in neighboring Libya . Under President Ronald Reagan , the United States gave covert CIA paramilitary support to help Habré take power and remained one of Habré ' s strongest allies throughout his rule , providing his regime with massive amounts of military aid . The United States also used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti - Qaddafi force . " The CIA was so deeply involved in bringing Habré to power I can ' t conceive they didn ' t know what was going on , " said Donald Norland , U . S . ambassador to Chad from 1979 to 1981 . " But there was no debate on the policy and virtually no discussion of the wisdom of doing what we did . " Documents obtained by Human Rights Watch show that the United States provided Habré ' s DDS with training , intelligence , arms , and other support despite knowledge of its atrocities . Records discovered in the DDS ' meticulous archives describe training programs by American instructors for DDS agents and officials , including a course in the United States that was attended by some of the DDS ' most feared torturers . According to the Chadian Truth Commission , the United States also provided the DDS with monthly infusions of monetary aid and financed a regional network of intelligence networks code - named " Mosaic " that Chad used to pursue suspected opponents of Habré ' s regime even after they fled the country . In the summer of 1983 , when Libya invaded northern Chad and threatened to topple Habré , France sent 3 , 000 paratroops with air support , while the Reagan administration provided two AWACS electronic surveillance planes to coordinate air cover . By 1987 Gaddafi ' s forces had retreated . " Habré was a remarkably able man with a brilliant sense of how to play the outside world , " a former senior U . S . official said . " He was also a bloodthirsty tyrant and torturer . It is fair to say we knew who and what he was and chose to turn a blind eye . " Legal proceedings . Human rights groups hold Habré responsible for the killing of thousands of people , but the exact number is unknown . Killings included massacres against ethnic groups in the south ( 1984 ) , against the Hadjerai ( 1987 ) , and against the Zaghawa ( 1989 ) . Human Rights Watch charged him with having authorized tens of thousands of political murders and physical torture . Between 1993 and 2003 , Belgium had universal jurisdiction legislation allowing the most serious violations of human rights to be tried in national as well as international courts , without any direct connection to the country of the alleged perpetrator , victims or where the crimes took place . Despite the repeal of the legislation , investigations against Habré went ahead and in September 2005 he was indicted for crimes against humanity , torture , war crimes and other human rights violations . Senegal , where Habré had been in exile for 17 years , had Habré under nominal house arrest in Dakar . On 17 March 2006 , the European Parliament demanded that Senegal turn over Habré to Belgium to be tried . Senegal did not comply , and it at first refused extradition demands from the African Union which arose after Belgium asked to try Habré . The Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights expressed its approval of the decision . If he were to be turned over , he would have become the first former dictator to be extradited by a third - party country to stand trial for human rights abuses . In 2007 , Senegal set up its own special war - crimes court to try Habré under pressure from the African Union . On 8 April 2008 , the National Assembly of Senegal voted to amend the constitution to clear the way for Habré to be prosecuted in Senegal ; Ibrahima Gueye was appointed as trial coordinator in May 2008 . A joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate voted in July 2008 to approve a bill empowering Senegalese courts to try people for crimes committed in other countries and for crimes that were committed more than ten years beforehand ; this made it constitutionally possible to try Habré . Senegalese Minister of Justice Madicke Niang appointed four investigative judges on this occasion . A 2007 movie by director Klaartje Quirijns , " The Dictator Hunter " , tells the story of the activists Souleymane Guengueng and Reed Brody who led the efforts to bring Habré to trial . On 15 August 2008 , a Chadian court sentenced Habré to death " in absentia " for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with allegations that he had worked with rebels inside Chad to oust Déby . François Serres , a lawyer for Habré , criticized this trial on 22 August for unfairness and sec recy . According to Serres , the accusation on which the trial was based was previously unknown and Habré had not received any notification of the trial . 14 victims filed new complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor on 16 September , accusing Habré of crimes against humanity and torture . The Senegalese government added an amendment in 2008 , which would allow Habré to be tried in court . Senegal later changed their position , however , requesting 27 million euros in funding from the international community before going through with the trial . This prompted Belgium to pressure the International Court of Justice ( ICJ ) to force Senegal to either extradite Habré to Belgium to proceed with the trial . This request was denied by the ICJ . In November 2010 , the court of justice of the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) ruled that Senegal could not hold trial in the matter through local court only , and asked for the creation of a special tribunal on the matter of Habré ' s prosecution . In April 2011 , after initial reticence , Senegal agreed to the creation of an " ad hoc " tribunal in collaboration with the African Union , the Chadian state and with international funding . Senegal changed their position again however , walking out during discussions on establishing the court on 30 May 2011 without explanation . The African union commission on Habré , in preparation for their next summit on 30 June published a report urging to press Senegal to extradite Habré to Belgium . On 8 July 2011 , Senegal officials announced that Habré would be extradited to Chad on 11 July , but this was subsequently halted . In July 2012 , the ICJ ruled that Senegal must start Habré ' s trial " without delay " . Amnesty International called on Senegal to abide by the ICJ ' s ruling , calling it " a victory for victims that ' s long overdue " . In December 2012 , the Parliament of Senegal passed a law allowing for the creation of an international tribunal in Senegal to try Habre . The judges of the tribunal would be appointed by the African Union , and come from elsewhere in Africa . On June 30 , 2013 , Habré , was arrested in Senegal by the Senegalese police . Chadian President Idriss Deby said of his arrest that it was a step towards " an Africa free of all evil , an Africa stripped of all dictatorships . " Senegal ' s court , set up with the African Union , charged him with crimes against humanity and torture .