By Kaddy Jawo
Today marks exactly nineteen years since the April 10 and 11, 2000 student massacre in The Gambia, but events on those two days are still fresh in the minds of most Gambians. It is, undoubtedly, one of the saddest days in Gambian history. The Gambian security forces fired live ammunition on student protesters resulting in the death of fourteen students and a journalist and injuring dozens more.
This year is the third commemoration of the event since the student massacre occurred in April 2000. Observing this event would have been unfathomable to commemorate under the regime of Yahya Jammeh that responsible for the massacre. The commemoration took the form of a march procession held at the Youth Monument in Westfield.
The victims of the killings on that fateful two days of skirmishes between students and the security forces were Reginald Carrol, Lamin A. Barrow, Ousman Sabally, Sainey Nyabally, Ousman Sembene, Bakary Njie, Claesco Pierre, Momodou Lamin Njie, Ebrima Barry, Wuyea Foday Mansareh, Momodou Lamin Chune, Abdoulie Sanyang, Omar Barrow, Bamba Jobarteh, and Burama Badjie and Journalist Karamo Barrow.
There were no government official or representative at this year’s commemoration unlike last year when the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Abubacarr Tambadou, said at the event that justice should prevail for the victims and families of the student massacre. He assured the public that the government will try by all means to know who issued the orders for the shootings and killings of the protesting students and that justice will be served.
Former President Jammeh was accused of ordering the shootings of the students, but his government denied the allegations. A government commission of inquiry reportedly concluded that the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) officers were “largely responsible” for many of the deaths and other injuries. The inquiry also concluded that five soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion were responsible for the deaths of two students at Brikamaba. The commission also called for the trial and prosecutions of the ring leaders of the student protest but placed no blame on the political leadership. The commission report was never released by the government of Yahya Jammeh until it was leaked to the public in 2017 after the former president was removed from office.
The government stated that the report implicated several PIU officers in the students’ deaths and injuries, yet those responsible have never been brought to book. Also, to this day the families of the victims have never been compensated by the government.
On April 10-11, 2000, GAMSU organized a large-scale protest that questioned the Jammeh administration. The students demonstrated on April 10, 2000 to protest the alleged beating to death of Ebrima Barry by fire service officers in Brikama, Western Region.
Barry was a secondary school student, whose teacher had asked the fire service officers to intervene in disciplining him. Ebrima was reportedly beaten, tortured and later died. In addition to the outrageous request and action that fire service officers in school disciplinary action against a student leading to his torture and death, the former government failed to properly investigate the matter.
The GAMSU student leadership made demands and an autopsy report (which was widely believed to have been a cover up) stated that Barry died of natural causes. A spontaneous student protest ensued at The Gambia College, where the Gambia Students’ Union (GAMSU) had a sub-union.
While that was being discussed, a thirteen-year old school girl was allegedly raped by a uniformed paramilitary (Police Intervention Unit) officer at the Independence Stadium, where an annual inter-schools’ sports competition was taking place. A doctor’s examination confirmed the girl was raped and again, GAMSU pressed for answers. After a long delay to bring the paramilitary officers who were on duty at the stadium for the victim to identify her assailant, GAMSU requested a permit to hold a public protest but was denied by the police authority.
Realizing it was their constitutional right to protest, the student leadership called its members to peacefully march toward the capital city of Banjul. They were viciously crushed by a mixture of police and military officers. Sixteen people died, including a Red Cross volunteer/radio journalist and a three-year old child (who was killed by what was reported to be a stray bullet). Fourteen students were killed, and several others were injured. GAMSU, which at the time had branches all over the country, did not back down.
Upon viewing the violent response of the former government to the protest of their colleagues in the city, students in Armitage, the country’s only boarding high school and several other rural towns launched their own protests on April 11th, 2000. And like their colleagues, their protests were violently quashed, and several hundreds of students were detained country wide.
The government of Yahya Jammeh responded by passing an amnesty bill, in 2000, in the National Assembly granting immunity to members of the security forces who committed crimes against prosecutions.
The organizers of this years’ commemorations will hold a symposium tomorrow at The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute formerly the Hotel School.