DAKAR, Senegal — For more than 20 years, former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre lived a life of luxurious exile in Senegal, taking a second wife and watching "Seinfeld" shows.
But 3,000 miles east of here, a truth commission and rights workers in Chad were documenting widespread abuses during Habre's rule, including disappearances, torture and prison cells so cramped that inmates often died for lack of air.
That exiled life was upended June 30 when paramilitary police stormed his home in Dakar's posh Almadies neighborhood, taking him into custody in a move victims said was long overdue. After years of back-and-forth, Senegal and the African Union last year agreed to establish a special court to try the case. On Tuesday, judges at the court in Dakar formally charged Habre with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. His trial could begin as soon as next year.
The home where former Chadian dictator Hissen Habre was taken into custody by paramilitary police on June 30, on a quiet backstreet in an upscale neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal.
Habre had arrived in Senegal in 1990 and kept a low profile for more than two decades, embracing a quiet life as allegations against him mounted. Neighbors and relatives say that over time, the former president learned to converse in Wolof and developed a taste for thieboudienne, the national dish of fish and rice. He married a Senegalese woman as his second wife. Allegedly with the help of illicit payments, he implanted himself so deeply into Senegalese society that officials refused to arrest him, allowing him to become a symbol of impunity and of Africa's unwillingness to try its own.
Now his fate will rest on whether prosecutors can successfully link the kindly, adopted resident of Senegal to the fastidious Chadian autocrat who allegedly received hand-delivered reports on hundreds of detainees tortured and killed by his forces.
Many who saw Habre on a regular basis in Dakar say they find it difficult to square the brutal ruler they read about in newspapers with the neighbor who lived among them.
AP
Former Chad dictator Hissene Habre, left, is seen as he leaves a court in Dakar, Senegal in November, 2005.
Ousmane Balde, a retired military officer who sits with friends every morning on a bench not far from the villa where Habre lived with his Chadian family, said he admired Habre's ability to "become Senegalese."
"I'm very sad about the way in which he was taken," Balde said. "Many African presidents have committed errors, committed crimes. But he's Senegalese, and he should be treated without brutality. All of Dakar is grieving over this."
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