Gambia: Yahya Jammeh admits to 9 executions, but is the real number 18 or 26 massacred

By Mathew K Jallow

The oldest inmate, Lamin Darboe, had his death sentence commuted to a life in prison years ago by former President Dawda K Jawara. The youngest, Buba Yarboe of Busumbala village, suffered severe mental illness and was totally incapable of making rational decisions, much less have the capacity to understand his surroundings. And beautiful Tabara Samba, the female in the group, with little children at home, tried and sentenced for murder in an apparent manslaughter case, was gang raped by her captors. This is not a preamble of the opening chapter of an Agatha Christie crime novel, it is real, and it happened in The Gambia. What all three individuals shared in common was their cruel, mind-numbing execution at Mile Two Prisons, an act of brutality so unimaginable, it left an entire nation numbed by grief, disgust and utter disbelief. On that fateful August night last week when nine inmates were led out of their concrete-walled and steel door cells and executed in cold blood with such willful disregard for human life, the Gambia descended further into new depths of mindless barbarity.

Yahya Jammeh has finally dug his own grave. This time around, his fate will not be determined by the primitive superstitions and customary devil worship that have dictated the way he ruled Gambia with bewildering ignorance; instead his life now rests in the hands of the Gambian people.  For the first time in seventeen years, Gambians both at home and abroad cry out in deadly rage with a united voice and a determination never before seen in all these years of tyranny and political madness. For seventeen years, Yahya Jammeh has ruled The Gambia with an extraordinary cruelty and mean-spiritedness, in the process turning himself into an object of hate and scorn, but it is his extremely vexing detachment from reality that has locked him into a perpetual state of delusion and illusionary grandiosity. The relationship between Yahya Jammeh and the Gambian people is a marriage that has never worked well, not even for a single day, and the time for it to end came and went with each extraordinary abuse of power that has included the deaths of fellow citizens. But the recent execution of as much as twenty-six helpless prisoners is the straw that broke the camel’s back and sealed Yahya Jammeh’s fate.

The executions in Mile two Prisons of so many innocent Gambians is more than anyone can bear, and if Yahya Jammeh thinks this egregious act of violence will just go away like the massacre of the sixteen students or the execution of forty-four Ghanaians, he is clearly underestimating the resolve of the Gambian people.  But more baffling still, while the regime admitted to the execution of nine inmates, the real number could be as many as twenty-six people executed on the orders of Yahya jammeh and unless the regime can produce all the inmates to the public, Gambians and the international community will continue to assume that twenty-six were inmates executed. This case is similar to the Ghanaians massacre ten years ago when the regime admitted to eight murders instead of forty-four who were really executed. To make matters even worst, rumors of the use of the body parts of the executed in ritual sacrifice are rife. Given Yahya Jammeh’s extreme dependence on primitive African belief systems, these rumors are not all that far-fetched. But if the ritual sacrifice rumors are proven true, this will further aggravate Gambians and animate even more violent outrage among Gambians and the international community.

Today, ten days after Yahya Jammeh executed as much as twenty-six Gambians and Senegalese, lost in the conversation is the issue of burial of the dead. So far, families of the executed have not received the bodies of their loved ones in order to give them decent burials according to local customs and Islamic tradition. The relatives of the executed are urged to go to the Banjul mortuary and demand to be given the bodies of their executed family members for burial. In the same vein, the Gambian public is urged to support the quest by family members to retrieve the dead bodies of their relatives from Yahya Jammeh. The Senegalese community in The Gambia should also congregate at the Banjul mortuary to demand the surrender of the bodies of Tabara Samba and Gibbi Bah for repatriation to their villages in Senegal for burial. This effort should be supported by the Senegalese government, and besides, President Macky Sall must independently demand the return of the bodies of his citizens to accord them the proper burials they deserve in Senegal. Yahya Jammeh has no authority under any law to continue to detain the bodies of the executed. The family members of the dead have the rights to demand the return of their dead relatives and not let irrational fear of Yahya Jammeh force them to abandon their obligation to their deceased relatives.

This week, Gambians across the globe will express outrage with demonstrations, a move complemented by Senegalese demonstrations for the execution of their compatriots. In stark contrast, in The Gambia,  even the media appeared timid in their reporting, but it is the outrageously tepid “so-called” Group of 6 (six) letter that is so aggravating to the Gambians public.  And more puzzling still, the cowardly “so-called” group of six’s letter to Yahya Jammeh arguing the legal basis for the executions is completely misguided, out of line and irrelevant to the situation. The illegality of the executions is an established face, and besides Yahya Jammeh does not respond to legalities or simple common sense. Time and again, he has shown unwillingness to respect our Constitution and the laws of the land and scores of letter from politicians over the years have been ignored with reckless abandon. As it is, the time for the politicians to overcome their fears is now and what Gambians expect from Ousainou Darboe is to call the country out in a massive show force to demonstrate until Yahya Jammeh leaves. Today, hundreds, if not thousands of Diaspora Gambians are ready and willing to join nation-wide demonstrations seeking the forced removal of Yahya Jammeh. We can no longer afford to be held back by fear, and besides if such blatant acts of violence against fellow citizens do not embolden us with resolve, it will mean the acceptance of the devaluation of Gambian life,

With the massacre of as many as twenty-six Gambians and Senegalese a done deal, the broader debate has to shift focus to the removal of Yahya Jammeh by hook or by crook. After the latest act of unprovoked violence against innocent citizens, Yahya Jammeh has shown himself unqualified to continue breathing God’s air, and Gambians urge members of our military to show they care by mustering the courage to dispatch Yahya to a state of perpetual darkness. It is hoped that soon a united Diaspora front will seek to work hand in hand with the political establishment in order to force Yahya Jammeh’s removal from power. It is unconscionable and outrageous that our military and fellow citizens to continue to wallow in a senseless fear of a handful of MFDC Cassamance rebels who have no business whatsoever being in our country. The rebels who provide Security for Yahya Jammeh do not have a monopoly of mean-spiritedness or the determination to fight. Each one of us has that reptilian cruelty in us that can manifest in extraordinary violent acts. Besides, the more than half million young patriotic young Gambians under thirty years age who can be mobilized to take up arms to free their beloved country are no match for the mere hundred fifty Cassamance rebels. Today, Senegal and the broader international community are also ready for Yahya Jammeh’s departure from the face of the earth. For, apparently, Yahya Jammeh did not get the memo from Liberia’s Samuel Doe, Libya’s Mumar Khadaffi and many other tyrants of the past. Those who live by the gun will die by the gun.

Gambia:Yahya Jammeh did not execute 9 but 18 people Says former Gambian Ambassador Essa Bokarr Sey

In a radio interview with U.S based Hello Gambia Radio, former Gambian ambassador to Washington, Essa Bokarr Sey  made some startling revelations about the Gambia's execution of death row prisoners. According to Mr. Sey, Yahya Jammeh executed 18 people and not the 9 we were made to believe. Mr. Sey also revealed that the President of the Republic of The Gambia has threatened to assassinate Alioune Tine, President of  RADDHO, a human rights organisation based in Dakar.

Gambia:Today our nation is shocked, saddened and outraged

By Assan Martin, Human Rights Lawyer

Mr. President:

Since honest and sincere advice are lacking in your administration, I felt that I should give short advice to you with all sincerity and honesty on the recent executions of death row inmates.

Today our nation is shocked, saddened and outraged as to the recent executions of some 9 inmates in mile 2 Prison. As a staunched believer of rights and liberties especially the rights of accused persons, I have constantly spoken against the death penalty since October 19^th 2010. Reference of which is on the point newspaper edition October 19^th, 2010. I was basically advocating for the commutation of death sentences to life imprisonment to avoid the innocent lost of lives that can never be recovered.

As counsel who represented and supervised several murder cases since the inception of the special court established to extradite cases and on gratis for my state brief cases. I here remind you Mr. President that our judicial system (courts) is full of flaws and mainly not competent as claimed. Especially some foreign judges trying to impressed you at the expense of the Gambian people. Be informed that there is a lot of miscarriages of justices in our criminal justice system especially with procedures and proceedings in cases of felons in our courts.

Mr. President the ill advices you received from the so called professionals you relied upon are damaging to our nation.”Tackling crimes can only come by tackling the root causesof crimes”   and for people to be educated for a decent society. Death penalty sentences are not a solution to tackling crimes.

However, your former Justice Minister Mr. Edu GomeZ and co tried to defend capital punishment with no justifiable reasons but to solidify their positions in government.

Sadly most of our foreign JUDGES are incompetent and don’t understand the Gambian society and culture. One cannot imagine a judge sentenced to death an accused person in provocative murder cases. Also in a sad case of woman “sentence to death by hanging “for dumping a baby caused by post-antenatal syndromes or stresses leading to concealment of birth in a remote village.

More so the treason trial involving General Lang Tombong Tamba and 8 others on 10^thMay 2010, is a clear case of travesty of justice. I believe in don’t defending the guilt but again let me remind you sir that there existed no justifiable evidence for conviction in this case.  Where conviction is warranted legal experts will not comment against it.

Once more Mr. President halts all executions and repeals all death penalty provisions. As from today our nation will never be the same because the current situation is beyond remedy.  These executions have tarnished the image of our democracy, our Justice system and respect for human rights.

The Gambia: The Balangbaa Uprising

(By Mathew K Jallow)

Their persistent denials rang hollow. Yahya Jammeh’s spokes-people Njogu Bah and Mahamadou Tangara towed the line prescribed by Yahya Jammeh, and in the process managed to create only doubt, yet their guilt-ridden diplomatic offensive did nothing to dissuade Gambians familiar with the regime’s pattern of lies, deceit and denials. The ugly and unimaginable slaughter of innocent and defenseless Gambians was already spreading around the world like wildfire, and Gambians both at home and abroad were left utterly dumbfounded by these egregious acts of violence. What happened on the night of Thursday August 23, 2012, is beyond description and spells the beginning of the end for Yahya Jammeh and his Neanderthal regime.  Like the students’ massacre on April 10, 2000, the mindless slaughter of nine Mile 2 Prison inmates on August 23, 2012, will forever remain etched in the collective memory of the Gambian nation. At exactly 9.30 pm on August 23, 2012, the frightening sound of heavy metal doors broke the stillness of the night. One by one, nine selected inmates were led from their dark, dingy concrete-walled cells and out under the dark open sky above Mile 2 Central Prisons. It was the last time anyone of them would see the mosquito infested cells or smell the overpowering stench of rot, death and human feaces of the dungeon each had called home for so many years. It was the last time they would lay eyes on the four fellow citizens who loitered around aimlessly and who out of despair and despondence had developed severe psychological problems and become mad inside the hellhole of Mile Two Prisons.

Today, it is almost one week since nine Mile 2 Central Prison death-row inmates faced the firing squad that cut their lives short with a hail of bullets. The nine were among forty seven Gambians and non-Gambians sitting on death row who were removed to a central holding cell after Yahya Jammeh threatened to execute them. And as they were being led away to their deaths, one of them, Lamin Darboe shouted out for all the prisoners to know they were being taken away and perhaps never to come back. And he was so right. Since Yahya Jammeh made good his threats and ordered the execution of nine inmates, international pressure and outright condemnation has severely undermined his efforts to rationalize his crime against humanity as an application of the letter of the law. The extremely un-Gambian enforcement of the death penalty and the use of the firing squad as an instrument of death for convicted prisoners and terror against the living dead, by a corrupt judicial system that had long ago lost its credibility, have put the Yahya Jammeh regime on notice. Understandably, the mass murders committed on the orders of Yahya Jammeh last Thursday August 23, overshadowed the brutal execution in Foni, of two sibling elders from the village of Kanunorr, Wuyeh Colly and Enor Colly. Their executions were carried out with a mind-bugling casualness and nonchalance that defy imagination. And today, nearly one week after the executions of nine prisoners that traumatized a nation, another inmate, Musa Badjie, collapsed and died inside Mile 2 Prisons, a testament to the brutal and harsh prison conditions.

For seventeen long years, Yahya Jammeh has tested the will of Gambians with periodic adventures into the Machiavellian world of Stalinist brutality. Since 1994, more than two hundred Gambians and non-Gambians have been murdered on orders of Yahya Jammeh, as many as thirty Gambian men and women have disappeared from the face of the earth after their arrest by regime agents, some as long as twelve years. But the executions of nine innocent prisoners last week brings to mind the brutal execution of forty-four Ghanaians nearly ten years ago, in addition to the vehicular murders of twenty children, run down by Yahya Jammeh’s speeding motorcades. And besides the witch-hunting that killed ten elderly men and women, an average of ten murders are committed each year on the orders of Yahya Jammeh. But there is still a lot we don’t know about the brutality inflicted on Gambians by Yahya Jammeh and his agents of death. Last week alone, two innocent Jola elders from the village of Kanunorr in the Fonis were abducted and murdered on Yahya Jammeh’s orders. Since then, it has come to light that Foni Jolas are under siege with frequent abduction and disappearances and of the known twenty Gambian forced disappearances over the past decade, most are Foni Jolas and include several murders in Kanilai village. Fellow Gambians, of recent, we have all been united by a deadly hatred of Yahya Jammeh, and the time to make him taste his own medicine has come. The time has come for the Gambian Diaspora, civil society organizations, the political establishment, and Gambian’s military and security services, to come together and reclaim our country. As we strategize on how to rid The Gambia of Yahya Jammeh in the coming weeks and months, we implore the military to help us make Yahya Jammeh history. The Balangbaa Uprising is coming, and must happen to free our people from bondage. The time is NOW.

Gambia says nine prisoners executed by firing squad

(AFP) BANJUL, Gambia — Gambia's interior ministry said Monday nine death row prisoners had been executed by firing squad, after President Yahya Jammeh vowed to carry out all death sentences by mid-September.

In a statement the ministry named nine people, including one woman, who were "executed by firing squad on Sunday 26th August 2012" after they were sentenced to death and all their appeals had been exhausted.

"The general public is hereby warned that the rule of law as regards the peace and stability and the protection of lives, property and liberty will not be compromised for whatever reason," read the statement.

Amnesty International reported the execution of the nine prisoners on Saturday, a day before the government said it took place and just days after an African Union envoy urged Jammeh to renounce his plans to execute all 47 death row prisoners.

In a televised address to mark this year's Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr on Sunday Jammeh said: "By the middle of next month, all the death sentences will have been carried out to the letter.

"There is no way my government will allow 99 percent of the population to be held to ransom by criminals."

One of the men executed, Dawda Bojang, had been convicted for murdering British tourist Ronald Stanley Ford in 2002.

Two of the prisoners were Senegalese, one of them a woman, Tabara Samba, convicted in 2007 of murdering her husband by pouring hot cooking oil over him after he took a second wife.

Three of the dead were soldiers who were convicted in 1998 of treason and murdering two fellow soldiers.

While the last official execution took place in 1985, AFP's correspondent in Banjul said that executions in Gambia, a sliver of land wedged into Senegal, have continued unofficially with the most recent taking place in 2007.

Jammeh, a former military officer who seized power in a 1994 coup, brooks no dissent in a country often blasted by rights bodies for abuses.

Many top officials have found themselves charged with treason, often related to coup plots which observers have said are a sign of paranoia by Jammeh, who won a fourth term in office in November 2011.

Last year eight military top brass, including the former army and intelligence chiefs and the ex-deputy head of the police force, were sentenced to death for treason.

The European Union on Monday condemned the executions and demanded they stop.

"I demand the immediate halt of executions," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

"I recall the (Gambian government's) international commitments, as well as the commitments concerning the respect of human rights contained in the Cotonou Agreement, which governs relations between the European Union and The Gambia."

She added: "In light of these executions, the European Union will urgently consider an appropriate response."