News

Gambia says it will prosecute the former president for murder


BANJUL, Gambia – Many Gambian citizens have testified in recent years that their former president was responsible for a series of crimes they never thought they would one day see him on trial in. courtroom.

But that prospect became more of a reality on Wednesday, after the current government said it plans to prosecute Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled for 22 years and often terrorized the citizens of his small nation. he is on the west coast of Africa.

Truth, Reconciliation and Reporting Commission, set up to detect human rights abuses, from 2018 to 2021 broadcast the testimonies of the victims and confessions of alleged perpetrators living in the nation’s living room.

Witnesses include members of the famous team of the former president, is called a jungler. But many more witnesses are citizens who recount being victims, such as Toufah Jallow, who accused the former president of raping her when she was 18, right after she won the nation’s top talent competition.

“It’s been a huge relief to my shoulders,” Ms Jallow said in an interview about the government’s decision on Wednesday. “We lost hope at some point.”

But having finally reached this point, she said: “It’s been very empowering for so many victims.”

In a televised address, Dawda Jallow, Minister of Justice, presented the government’s response to the truth commission, accepting its recommendationincluding the prosecution of the former president.

Mr Jallow said: “President Jammeh will face justice for the atrocities he has committed in this country.

But while some victims and civil society leaders hailed this as a big step forward, others expressed doubt that the government would follow through on its word with concrete action.

“I think Adama Barrow and his government realized they had no choice but to accept these recommendations,” said Nana-Jo Ndow, founder of the Africa Network Against Extrajudicial Murders. law and forced disappearance said. But, she added, “whether they will prosecute is another question.”

The Truth Commission recorded 122 cases of torture, more than 230 people killed and many raped by Mr Jammeh’s agents, most of them on orders of the former president. Mr. Jammeh jailed his critics, branded citizens are witches and forced people with AIDS to exchange their drugs for bogus herbal treatments he invented, according to human rights advocates.

After failing in an election and trying to cling to power, Mr Jammeh ended up in exile in 2017. A new coalition government and its new president, a former real estate agent named Adama Barrow, received a hero’s welcome.

But politics soon took precedence over justice. Last year, with another election approaching, President Barrow turned to support his predecessor, Mr. Jammeh. Mr Jammeh is living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, but despite divisions within his party, he enjoys considerable support in the Gambia, especially in his hometown of Foni, where in last year’s election , his faction won all 5 parliamentary seats.

Some victims argued that Mr. Barrow could not be serious about prosecuting Jammeh while at the same time seeking his political backing.

Mr Barrow succeeded in winning the support of part of Mr Jammeh’s old party, and that was enough for Mr Barrow to return to power. But Mr Jammeh himself has refused to identify Mr Barrow – even calling him “a donkey” at one point. By turning down Mr Barrow, Mr Jammeh has made it politically feasible for the sitting president to prosecute his predecessor, analysts say.

“What really saved us right now,” Ndow said, “is the madness of Yahya Jammeh. His madness really helped this time, because he shot himself in the foot.”

Miss Ndow’s father forcibly disappeared on Jammeh’s direct orders and is presumed killed. Along with many other victims, she turned a personal tragedy into a solid campaign to bring charges against the perpetrators.

Still, she said, every step is a fight, with the government failing to investigate what appear to be apparent cases of abuse and allowing confessed killers to continue working in the fields. armed forces and released them from the intimate Gambian society. . Sometimes, they run into relatives of the victim.

And even after the Barrow-Jammeh alliance failed to materialize, Mr. Barrow appointed two of his predecessor’s most senior officials as speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Commons.

Madi Jobarteh, a Gambian human rights activist has recently the subject of a personal attack by Chairman Barrowsaid that the government’s response on Wednesday, coincidentally Jammeh’s 57th birthday, was generally encouraging.

“It seems the government has gathered its courage and started to address issues of justice after a ‘disappointing start to the years’,” he said.

And Fatou Baldeh, who wrote a report documenting sexual violence during the Jammeh period, says the official statement “lays the groundwork for justice and reparation.”

But the government did not detail how it would carry out any prosecutions, or at what time.

Several senior figures in Jammeh’s government have applied for a pardon but have been denied. One truth committee recommendation was not accepted: remove the director of the National Intelligence Service, who, after Mr. Barrow became president, renovated the cells where torture victims were kept, destroy important evidence such as graffiti and bloodstains. He is still in his place.

For Mrs Ndow, it is clear that while the struggle has dragged on, it will have to continue.

“It took five years to bark, but obviously you’re listening,” she said, referring to the government. “And we’re not going anywhere.”

“Hopefully other Gambians don’t have to go through what I went through,” she added.



Source link

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button