By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Scores of victims of the oppressive rule of Yahya Jammeh told The Gambia Times that there would not be any forgiveness for the perpetrators of crimes without victims knowing the full truth and receiving justice. Despite the uncertainty of the imperfect model of truth commissions, they expressed their confidence that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) is the right venue for Gambians to settle their differences. Two years after the ouster of former president Jammeh, many Gambians continued to grieve over the pains and atrocities inflicted on them by state agents during his twenty-two years misrule. With the launching of the TRRC many now breathe a sigh of relief that, finally, justice will be served.
The Gambia government established TRRC to bring justice to those who bear the greatest responsibility for the most severe violations of human rights during the past twenty-two years. The Commission will seek to expose the truth about the nature of human rights violations that were committed and will determine what form of justice will be delivered. Among these include recommendations for reparations, reconciliation, prosecution and punishment for whom they are appropriate.
“The TRRC is the best thing the Barrow government has done for us (victims) so that the Gambian people can understand what some of us have gone through. For eighteen years we have been demanding justice for our colleagues (April 10, 2000 student demonstrators) to no avail. Some of our colleagues are currently going through some complex medical and health challenges, they need help even before they could be able to get to the commission because some of them can’t stand even for more than ten minutes,” said Abdou Karim Jammeh, a victim of the April 2000 student demonstration organized by The Gambia Student Union (GAMSU). The union was initially banned and many of its leaders including the president, Omar Joof, still remained in self-imposed exile.
“We have strong confidence in the integrity of the caliber of Gambians leading the TRRC and we hope they will do their job to the expectation of Gambians especially the victims. We want to know who did what and why; we want them (perpetrators) to answer our questions at least to clear the air and from there we can forgive each other,” Mr. Jammeh told The Times.
Mr. Jammeh who was shot on the ankle is now using walk on crutches, but said he is not bothered by his condition. He is rather concerned about his colleagues many of whom are now wheelchair bound, while others cannot do any Activities of Daily Living (ADL) for themselves without support from families and friends. His primary concern therefore is to provide medical treatment for these colleagues.
“What we want as a matter of urgency is medical attention and declaring April 10th as a National School Holiday. April is the month that we attained Republican status but also April was the month that dictatorship was born in The Gambia,” Mr. Jammeh disclosed to The Times what April meant to Gambians.
He said it was in April when Yahya Jammeh and thugs butchered fourteen unarmed students whose only crime was demanding justice from the state.
Marie Theresa, a sixty three year-old mother also spoke to The Times on her way home from attending prayers at the Church. She lost her eighteen-year-old son Califso Perriara to gunshots according to the coroner at the time. In an emotional voice, she narrated her trauma to The Times.
“My son was gunned down around Westfield on April 10th, 2000. He told me he was going to school and all of a sudden one of his friends rushed to inform me that Califso was shot down and was in a serious situation. He was of great help to me. I knew he would have been of great asset to me and the family but Jammeh’s regime ended his life.” It’s not fair Ms. Therese told The Times as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Ms. Therese said she will never forgive the former president Jammeh nor the people who had a hand in ending his son’s life. She is asking for nothing more or less from TRRC other than truth and Justice.
“We (victims) will not forgive Yahya Jammeh nor the perpetrators for all these suffering we have been going through. For twenty-two years we have been kept in suspense. No one dared to tell us who was responsible for our sufferings. Imagine if it were your son, daughter or loved one?” She rhetorically asked.
Ms. Therese has already filed her case with The Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violence (GCVHRV)—a non-governmental organization working to seek justice for victims at the truth commission.
“I have been waiting for this long for justice to prevail and remain hopeful that my case will be treated with diligence and utmost sincerity in establishing the truth then we can talk of forgiveness and reconciliation,” she told The Times.
“It’s insulting to say the commission is unnecessary; it is necessary for truth be told by the very people who committed it; why they did it; and how they did it without which forget about reconciliation,” said Mamudu Jobarteh a nephew to the late Daba Marenah. Mr. Marenah, the former Director of the defunct National Intelligence Agency, was arrested in 2006 after an alleged foiled-coup plot that took place while he accompanied former President Jammeh on a state visit to Mauritania. The government announced that Mr. Marenah escaped with other alleged coup plotters after the vehicle transporting them to Janjabureh prison somersaulted on the highway. He is feared to have been executed on the orders of his boss, the former president.
Mr. Jobarteh told The Times that all his family wanted to know is who were responsible for the death of their loved one and why they killed him, and on whose order?.
“We are expecting truth to be delivered and affected families to be compensated before talking of any possible forgiveness. Jammeh arbitrarily killed our loved ones without thinking that today will come and it is now in our interest in ensuring that truth is seen to be served on behalf of our deceased who are not privileged to witness this day,” Mr. Jobarteh said.
He described people who are opposed to the creation of the commission as perpetrators, stating that it is people who committed crimes who are against the establishment of the TRRC. “The sufferings our families endured due to barbarism of Jammeh and his thugs is severe and imagine if it was one member of your family,” Mr. Jobarteh submitted.
He called on the commissioners to provide securities to key witnesses amidst the fact that many perpetrators are still living free in the society and can harm any potential witness who may testify against them.
While there are plenty of support for the creation of the TRCC, vocal supporters of the former president and key figures of the old regime are opposed to the investigating human right violations of the regime of Yahya Jammeh. These people called for the country to simply forget, forgive and move on without opening old wounds.
In an interview with Standard newspaper recently the former Mayor of KMC, Yankuba Colley, said although truth commissions all over the world focus on unearthing the truth and healing divisions in societies that have historic legacies of systematic violence, “The Gambia’s TRRC will bring more divisions as it is purposely designed to witch-hunt Jammeh and his close associates.”
He said with the promise of reparations, “some people will come to the TRRC and fabricate stories against Jammeh just because money is involved”. The former mayor of the Kanifing Municipality said he is “particularly worried that most of the TRRC members have rendered Jammeh guilty of the alleged atrocities even without establishing the facts”.
He expounded: “You see, I am not a bit in support of this TRRC because it will bring more disunity in the society than unifying us. What do we need the TRRC for? Have we gone to war? What had happened in this country that will warrant it?”
He said the setting up of the commission is “politically motivated” and that the commission will be turned into “a tool that will blackwash all the good works that former president Jammeh and the APRC have done in The Gambia”.
“If the APRC regime had killed as many people as people are alleging, then the country would have all been graves by now. ………You can go round Tallinding [his native residence] and you will not find a single compound where they will tell you somebody was killed there and the same applies to all of KM,” he claimed.
Explaining further, Mr. Colley revealed that The Gambia experienced an abortive coup d’état in 1981 resulting in the death of hundreds of Gambians. “We have about three mass graves in this country from the 1981 coup. You cannot compare the number of Gambians who died in the 1981 coup to those allegedly killed under Jammeh,” he argued.
Mr. Colley, who was a policeman before joining politics, recalled that despite the carnage of 1981, no such commission as the TRRC was set up to probe the killings. “Nothing happened, and we ended up reconciling and no one was put in jail. So why Yahya Jammeh and the APRC [now]?” he queried.
When it comes to grappling with the atrocities of the recent past of the country, the official opposition to the so-called Coalition 2016 is divided on the solution for closure and moving forward. The National Youth Mobilizer for opposition The Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), MC Cham Jr., stated that his party adds its voice to the demands of the victims, deferring in view with the National Mobilizer of former ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), and former mayor of Kanifing Municipality, Mr. Colley, as the TRRC sets on motion.
“The TRRC is a good initiative and it will only be useful if Justice is done to the victims and their families. All we need to do is to avoid being bias in the TRRC. The Commissioners of the TRRC need to be apolitical and they should execute their functions without fear or favor,” Cham of the opposition GDC said.
He responded to critics who argued that former president Jawara did not established a truth commission after the 1981 coup which, according to reports claimed over 2500 lives. “The mere fact Jawara did not set a commission after the 1981 rebellion does not mean that it is also not necessary to establish a TRRC for Jammeh’s victims,” Cham concluded.