Victims’ Centre urges IGP not to grant APRC permit January 9, 2020

Inspector General of Police

Gambia Police Force, Police Headquarters

Banjul, The Gambia

Dear Inspector General,

Objection to APRC Application for Permit to Protest for the Return of Former President Yahya Jammeh

We write to object to the application made by the APRC for a permit to stage protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh to the Gambia planned for the January 16, 2020. We object to this application in the strongest possible terms and consider it a provocation against the victims of Yahya Jammeh and his regime.

It is our position that Yahya Jammeh is a fugitive and that any activity that tend to be in denial of that fact or aimed at provoking victims of his regime must not be entertained.

It is not in the interest of peace and stability in the Gambia to allow a political party that had enabled and in blatant denial of serious human rights violations committed against Gambians and non-Gambians to stage a protest for the return of the very person who had masterminded and committed these violations as evident from the testimonies emerging from the TRRC.

The purpose of the current transitional justice efforts in the Gambia is to deal with repressive legacies of the APRC regime in order to ensure that it never again happen in the Gambia, thus, the application for permission to protest for the return of Yahya Jammeh is a direct sabotage to the ongoing transitional processes.

In the light of the above, we urged your office to reject this application and take adequate measures to deal with disparaging remarks and threats coming from the APRC leadership against witnesses that have testified before the TRRC.

We look forward to your usual cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Sheriff Kijera

CC: File

CC: MOJ, MOI, OP, TRRC

CC: EU Delegation, UNDP TJ, US Embassy, BHC,

CC: IHRDA, ACHPR