There is great hope among many Gambians, including victims of the Jammeh regime, that Mr Jawo’s accession to that position would auger well for the Transitional Justice process in The Gambia.
The repose of hope and confidence in Mr Jawo is because he is quite level-headed and there is no doubt that the Center under his watch would be quite ready to work closely with your government to help implement the TRRC recommendations as well as to pursue justice for the victims.
Mr President, your government contributed D50 million to the TRRC's Victims Support Fund from the Jammeh-sold properties, and the victims received their money in July 2021.
Furthermore, in the draft 2022 budget estimates, the government then committed to give over D150 million to be utilised as part of the Reparations Fund, but that promise is yet to be honoured.
While most Gambians appreciate the role that your government has played in pushing forward the Transitional Justice agenda, which culminated in the setting up of the TRRC and eventually accepting most of its recommendations, but many of the victims of the Jammeh regime are also concerned about the slow pace of the implementation process.
We can recall that prior to the issuing of the White Paper, many of the victims who appeared before the TRRC were in July 2021 given part payments of the reparations recommended by the TRRC, with the promise that the balance would be paid by the government this year. However, it is now more than two years since the winding up of the TRRC and more than a year since your government issued the White Paper, the victims are still waiting for the balance, which some of them badly need to pay rent as well as school fees and other bills. This is in addition to the numerous other TRRC recommendations that are still to be implemented, of course with many of the perpetrators of those grave human rights violations still walking the streets undisturbed.
While your government’s commitment to implementing the TRRC recommendations is certainly not in doubt, but, as it is often said, justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore, what the victims expect is your government’s push to speed up the implementation process, which will no doubt strengthen their confidence in your administration’s commitment to addressing their concerns.
Meanwhile, the victims and indeed many other Gambians are demanding that your government should also intensify efforts to bring former President Yahya Jammeh to justice not only for the numerous atrocities that were committed under his watch, but also for many other crimes committed by his regime. Your government should seek donor support to speedily set up the proposed hybrid tribunal in order to bring Jammeh and the numerous other perpetrators of those heinous crimes against Gambians and non-Gambians alike to justice.
According to the TRRC - which received 393 witnesses, 250 people were extra-judicially killed by the Jammeh regime and several others went through various degrees of brutal torture. Therefore, Your Excellency, until Jammeh and his co-conspirators are brought to justice, it would be almost impossible to bring closure to the sufferings that Gambians went through during the 22 years of brutal dictatorship under his regime.
Good day!