As
2019 drew to an end, one of the most important and biggest stories that ran in
the Gambia was arguably the start of work by the tiny West African country’s
Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC), which gave hope to the
many victims of the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh, who lost power in 2017.
The
TRRC started hearings on 7 January 2019 after its establishment through an act
of parliament in 2018.
Its
main task is to look into the alleged massive human rights violations committed
during the 22-year-long dictatorship led by former president Jammeh.
The
probing body has since January continued to make revelations and hearing
testimonies from individuals who have alleged links to the massive human rights
violations carried out under Gambia’s former dictator.
As
such, victims of the Jammeh dictatorship and their families are now having a
glimmer of hope towards having justice in the killings or disappearances of
their love ones or at least have closure for the many unresolved cases of
killings, torture or other rights violations that happened under Jammeh’s
watch.
A
case in point is the unresolved killing of Deyda Hydara, the former Managing
Editor of the Point newspaper, who was gunned down in December 2004.
Hydara
was a prominent Gambian journalist and press freedom advocate who was killed on
the night of 16 December, 2004, while driving home with two of his staff: Ida
Jagne, a typist, and Niansarang Jobe, a layout editor.
The
killing incident coincided with the 13th anniversary of The Point, a leading
national newspaper he co-established and edited.
Fifteen
years on since Hydara’s killing, no one has been brought to book.
Meanwhile,
this year’s anniversary came on the heels of voluntary public confessions made
by some of his killers, one of whom included Malick Jatta, a member of Jammeh’s
hit-squad, who had told TRRC that ex-president Jammeh ordered the assassination
of Deyda.
The
code name of the operation was ‘The Magic Pen’. Since his forced exit in 2017
after he refused to step down following elections, Jammeh has been living in
exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Some
of the people who took part in the operation are also in exile while others
have been released after their testimony was heard by the TRRC.
In
June 2019, a dramatic incident occurred when TRRC ordered the arrest and
detention of former Junta member, Yankuba Touray, for refusing to testify and
questioning the legitimacy of the Commission.
Mr.
Touray, who served as a member of Gambia’s former Armed Forces Provisional
Ruling Council, was dragged to the Commission but he refused to take an oath so
that he could start giving testimony on matters relating to July 1994 coup and
the attendant dictatorship which lasted over two decades.
He
refused to answer questions from TRRC’s lead counsel, Essa Faal, arguing that
he enjoyed “constitutional immunity”.
He
refused to cooperate with TRRC despite later taking oath reluctantly and walked
away from the Commission.
Touray,
a former Minister and longtime ally of Jammeh, has been adversely mentioned at
the TRRC on alleged rights violations.
He
was said to have been allegedly linked to many serious crimes including the
1995 cold-blooded murder of former Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, who was
said to have been killed in Touray’s house.
Meanwhile,
during the hearings so far held, dramatic and graphic accounts were made about
Jammeh and his misguided style of leadership, depicting his backward and crude
political philosophy.
One
of those stone age and backward thinking displayed by Jammeh, who got power
drunk, was his infamous witch-hunting exercise and fake HIV/AIDS presidential
treatment programme.
The
TRRC with its startling revelations has so far brought a glimmer of hope to
many Gambians who have long argued that nothing much would come out of the
22-year-long campaign of terror, dehumanization and dictatorship presided over
by Jammeh, who once said he would rule the Gambia for a “billion years”.
Whether
justice will be done or seen to have been done in the case of Jammeh’s numerous
victims of human rights violations, time will tell.
Note:
The author, ML Jaiteh is the representative of Pan African News Agency
(www.panapress.com) in the Gambia. Tel: 2640667 or 6280055.
E-Mail
– jaitehml@yahoo.com
