CAT/C/TCD/CO/1
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(c) Investigate the activities of the environmental protection brigade and the
brigade responsible for searching for weapons and ensure effective control over their
future actions;
(d) Implement, as soon as possible, the recommendations of the commission of
inquiry into the events of February 2008;
(e) Offer full reparation, including fair and adequate compensation for the
victims of such acts, and provide them with medical, psychological and social
rehabilitation.
Secret detention centres
18. The Committee notes that secret places of detention are prohibited, but nevertheless
expresses concern about the conclusions in the report of the commission of inquiry into the
events of February 2008, which reveal the existence of secret places of detention run by State
agents (arts. 2 and 11).
The State party should identify and order the closure of all illegal places of detention,
order the immediate handover of anyone still detained in such places to the judicial
authorities, and ensure that they enjoy all the fundamental guarantees for the
prevention of and their protection from any act of torture and ill-treatment.
19. The Committee takes note of the Government’s assurance regarding respect for general
human rights principles by the National Security Agency (ANS), set up in 1993 to replace the
Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), a political police force described as “an engine
of oppression and torture” by the commission of inquiry into former President Habré’s crimes
and abuses of power. The Committee notes with concern, however, that all the Agency’s
activities are treated as classified information and are not subject to any controls or evaluation
(arts. 2 and 11).
In view of the traumatic memories left by the political police force that preceded the
National Security Agency, the State party should ensure full transparency and should
exercise effective control over the Agency’s activities. The Committee recalls that the
activities of all public institutions, including the National Security Agency, regardless
of who carries them out, their nature or the place where they are carried out, are acts
of the State party which fully engage its international obligations.
Sexual violence and abuse
20. The Committee is seriously concerned at the extent of sexual violence, including rape,
against women and children, particularly in and around sites for displaced persons and refugee
camps, committed with impunity whether by militias, armed groups, the armed forces or any
other person. The Committee is also concerned that cases of rape are usually not dealt with as
criminal offences but settled amicably, through financial compensation, under the supervision of
tribal or village chiefs, and that the guilty parties are rarely brought to justice (arts. 2 and 16).