At least 50 people died on Thursday in protests against the extension of the transition period
Oct. 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has assured that “hundreds” of detainees last Thursday during the protests against the president of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Déby, have been “deported” to the north of the country with no known destination.
FIDH speculates that the detainees could be transferred to Koro Toro prison, after collecting testimonies in a village between N’Djamena and Koro Toro.
“We are overwhelmed by the testimonies of the parents in Moussoro. They saw several vehicles carrying between 500 and 1,000 people being deported to an unknown destination in violation of all national and international laws ratified by Chad,” said the head of the NGO and historic human rights activist in Chad, Dobian Assingar.
Assingar has called for measures so that the situation does not deteriorate. “We call on the international community to take seriously what is happening in the country. The authorities, the Government, the President of the Transition, the Prime Minister of the Transition, all must fully play their role as true leaders, because tomorrow, if things go wrong, they will find themselves before international justice,” he warned.
The Minister of Communication and spokesman for the Chadian Government, Aziz Mahamat Saleh, confirms that there have been “several dozens” of arrests, although he has not specified the exact number. On the other hand, he denies that these detainees have been sent to the Koro Toro prison.
“We come from a dialogue in which the question of justice was at the center of the debate”, the minister recalled. “I don’t think this is the time to indulge in practices from another era. For the time being, it is necessary to specify responsibilities, carry out selective arrests of those who have committed the acts and bring them to justice”, he pointed out.
UNPRECEDENTED REPRESSION
On Thursday, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the two-year extension of the political transition period and the retention in power of Mahamat Idriss Déby, son of the former president. The balance of the repression is estimated at about fifty dead and about 300 wounded, especially in N’Djamena, Mundu and Kumra, according to the new head of government, Salé Kebzabo.
“This is one of the worst repressions that we have witnessed for many years in Francophone Africa. We can speak of a massacre,” said the executive secretary of the NGO Turn the page, Laurent Duarte.
“Idriss Déby Sr. was already doing the same thing. That is to say, every time there were political tensions we organized great dialogues that allowed us to co-opt, buy part of the opposition and give a democratic veneer,” Duarte said. “Today it is very clear that the best way to stay in power in Chad is to shoot the opponents,” he added.
The Chadian Association for the Promotion of Human Rights (ATPDH, for its acronym in French) has also denounced the repression of the security and defense forces and has announced that it has begun work to collect evidence to present a complaint at the international level.
The president of the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Angolan Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo, has launched a mission this Saturday in N’Djamena to assess the situation. Da Piedade has visited some of the places that were the scene of the disturbances and has met with the Prime Minister, Saleh Kebzabo.
GUNMEN IN CIVILIAN DRESSES
Chad’s Minister of Communication, Aziz Mahamat Saleh, has confirmed that “people in civilian clothes” arriving in vehicles opened fire on the crowd during the demonstrations. “There were deliberate attacks and it was insurrectionary. The objective was to seize power by all means, with the absolute desire that there be blood,” he pointed out.
Saleh has accused the opposition Succès Masra, president of the Transformers party, of having made a call to take up arms, although he does not rule out that they could be sympathizers of the regime itself.
Among the fifty victims identified, “no less than fifteen” members of the police were killed when they tried to defend the places where they were on duty, he stressed.
