It
has been almost 17 years since the April 10-11 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 14 students and a journalist and injuring dozens more.
This
year is the first commemoration since the student massacre and it was took the
form of a march past, symposium and musical tributes held at the Youth Monument
in Westfield.
Those
killed on that fateful day April 10-11, 2000:
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, and Burama Badjie
and Journalist Karamo Barrow.
Speaking
at the commemoration, the Attorney General and Justice Minister Baboucarr
Tambedou said that justice should prevail for the victims and families of the
student massacre.
Minister
Tambedou added that they will try by all means to know who gave the order for
the shooting and killing of those protesting students and that justice will be
served.
Former
President Jammeh was accused of ordering the shooting of the students, but the
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 revealed that five soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion were responsible
for the deaths of two students at Brikamaba.
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 and until now a remembrance day has been forbidden.
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 at the hands of fire service
officers in Brikama, Western Region.
Barry
was a secondary school student, whose teacher had told the fire service
officers to intervene in disciplining him. Ebrima was reportedly beaten,
tortured and later died. Apart from the outrageousness of the fact that fire
service officers were asked to discipline a student, the government failed to
properly investigate the matter. The GAMSU student leadership made demands and
an autopsy report (which was widely believed to be a cover up) stated that
Ebrima died of natural causes. A spontaneous student protest ensued at The
Gambia College, where a Gambia Students’ Union (GAMSU) sub-union existed.
While
that was being discussed, a thirteen-year old school girl was allegedly raped
by a uniformed paramilitary (intervention police) 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
police permit to hold a public protest.
This
request was denied. 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 government to the protest of their colleagues
in the city, students in the country`s only boarding high school and several
other rural towns launched their own protests on April 11; and like their
colleagues, they were violently quashed and several hundreds of students were
detained country wide.
