In Chad, there once ruled a dictator named Hissène Habré. In 1982, the U.S. began to provide millions of dollars in military aid and training for Habré’s secret police.[1] Apparently, President Reagan and his advisors determined that Hissène Habré’s usefulness as a supporter of America’s global interests outweighed his terrible human rights record. For, surely, the U.S. would not possibly turn its back on the plight of the people of Chad without a great need that only Hissène Habré could deliver. This was the dictator who came to be known as “the African Pinochet.” Dictator Habré’s services must have been special indeed, for his human rights record includes the murder of 40,000 political prisoners from 1982 to 1990.

This is the story of one of them, Rose Lokissim, a young woman of Chad. She was beautiful, strong and brave. One of her torturers saved a small note containing some of her final words—and she became a legendary hero. Rose was one of her country’s first female elite soldiers. But after joining forces to fight against the dictator Habré, she was captured by his political police who tortured her in unthinkable ways for 2-years. Rose Lokissim never wavered. Despite being whipped, despite being the only woman forced to live with the men in “the cell of death”, Rose stayed strong. By her words and her deeds she willed her fellow captives to keep faith. She proved that she was the force to be reckoned with—not the police, not the oppressors, not Hissène Habré. Throughout her captivity, she made small notes about her fellow prisoners that she smuggled out to their families so they would know the fate and condition of their loved ones.

Witness these translated quotes from people who knew Rose at the prison Les Locaux:[2]

“Rose was a good woman. If they tortured her, bound her, whipped her, she wouldn’t even move…. Even when she’d come back from torture, she’d still chat like normal with us, as if she hadn’t seen a thing. A good woman.” (Fatime Sakine Hamadi)

“A woman who didn’t wish anyone harm. She didn’t want to see people suffer. Rose told us, ‘Stay strong until we can get out of this prison. Then we’ll change the direction of things in this country.’ A revolutionary, because she had ideas that fired us up to revolt, to dream of a change.” (Dohkot Clément Abaifouta)

“Rose was a good woman. In the morning, they made her go throw out the poop. She’d go out cheerily just like a man. It didn’t bother her at all. Rose was really courageous.” (Ashta Mahamad Ali Monique)

During her last interrogation on May 15, 1986, Rose told her captors, "I don’t care what happens to me. I’m doing this for my country. My cause is right. Chad will remember me, and history will talk about me." One of her captors wrote down her words. Now, 30-years later, we see that Rose’s brave statement was true. The “African Pinochet,” Hissène Habré has finally been sentenced to life in prison. People of Chad remember Rose and are still talking about her magnificent courage.

Image: Rose Lokissim (author or copyright owner: Human Rights Watch)[3]

[1] http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/31/from_us_ally_to_convicted_war
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DqJiIN2VBs ("Talking About Rose" 30-minute film by award winning filmmaker Isabel Coixet)
[3] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rose_Lokissim.jpg “It is believed that use of this image may qualify as fair use under United States copyright law.”