By Stephanie Hancock

N'DJAMENA, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Standing on a patch of disused land on the outskirts of Chad's capital N'Djamena, Clement Abaifouta surveys the view around him with tears in his eyes.

"This is where we buried our fellow prisoners every day," he says, gesturing around him at mass graves underfoot, long since covered by weeds and bushes.

"This place has scarred my life. We dug holes just a few centimetres deep and pushed bodies inside with no consideration ... We were not allowed to cry even if it was a relative. The police told us: 'You don't see, you don't talk, you don't tell'."

Abaifouta spent four years imprisoned under the regime of Hissene Habre, the former dictator of Chad who human rights groups say is responsible for thousands of political killings and the systematic torture of many more.

Habre, whose brutal nine-year rule ended when he was overthrown in 1990, has been formally charged with crimes against humanity, but his trial is yet to begin.

He is accused of ordering some 40,000 killings and 200,000 cases of torture in the central African state between 1982-1990.

"His nickname of 'African Pinochet' is totally justified," said Olivier Bercault, of Human Rights Watch.

But his prosecution is fraught with political complexities.

When he fled Chad for Senegal in 1990, Habre took the contents of the country's treasury with him. Experts say he has used his vast wealth to pressure Senegal -- entrusted by the African Union with prosecuting him -- into delaying his trial.

Chad's current leader, Idriss Deby, overthrew Habre, but he has always been tight-lipped on the issue -- Deby was head of Habre's army before defecting to the rebellion.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy publicly asked for Habre's prosecution to be speeded up during a recent trip to Senegal.

"Habre's regime has been like a weight on Chad, and they've never really moved on," Bercault told Reuters.

"In 1993 and 1994 most of the henchmen of Hissene Habre, who were working for his political police, were reincorporated into the state security apparatus [by Deby]. So those who committed the crimes have been in power ever since."

MASS EXECUTIONS

Abaifouta estimates he buried thousands in the four years he was forced to perform his gruesome work. Once, he recognised the body of his uncle, burying him alongside other unknown victims.

"I don't know why I was chosen to do this work," he said, "but if I said no, I would have been killed."

Conditions in prisons were infamously bad. Many inmates died not simply from torture but from lack of food and water.

"We slept on a concrete floor like sardines in a tin," said Noyoma Kovounsouma Jean, who spent 8 months and 20 days in one of Habre's prisons after he was accused of being a Libyan agent.

"Our cell was 1.5 metres by 2. There were six of us. If one person wanted to turn over, we all had to wake up and turn."

Other victims, like Guilouna Atomgar Thomas, a rebel fighter captured by Habre's forces, spoke of mass killings.

"In the morning they would choose some people from each cell to be executed. Sometimes they took just two or three, sometimes 80. I remember one day 151 were executed," he said.

"We never left that cell, never. They opened the door briefly to give us food or let us scoop out our faeces. None of us thought we'd ever leave alive."

Women were not spared. Ginette Ngarbaye was 23 years old and four months pregnant when she was arrested.

"I knew it was bad when the man who started questioning me wore a white shirt covered in other people's blood," she said.

"They put electric wires all over my body -- you can see the scars today. For a week it was nothing but torture. I fell into a coma for three days."

She later gave birth on the floor of her cell without so much as a towel to soak up the blood.

Many of Habre's victims complain that those who tortured them still enjoy the trappings of power today.

"The government of Chad has shut its eyes," said Nadjingaye Toura Ngaba, who was arrested and tortured aged 16.

"Just last week I saw a torturer I recognised working at a ministry. When he saw me he started to laugh and said 'hey -- are you still alive?'," said Ngaba, who was repeatedly beaten and had electric wires attached to his genitals.

"It's a mockery ... Our torturers are driving round in luxury cars and building huge houses."

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