“There will be allocation in the national budget annually to go towards the issues of victims' reparations,” he said yesterday.
“In the current budget, despite all the challenges that we are facing, government have allocated D40 million for the establishment of the victims' commission, which we will hopefully see very soon. And half of that is seed money for them to start the victims' fund, administering reparations, until when we receive the proceeds of the Potomac property that was sold by the U.S. government,” he said.
“Gambia government is not entirely depending on external funding for victims' affairs,” he said. “We don't argue with victims because any free day is a day too long for the victims. But we can only assure victims that their issue is a priority for us, and we will do everything possible to make sure that their affairs are given the required priority.”
“We've secured a temporary office space for commissioners. We are left with procuring furniture and equipment that they will need. We also have lined up those initial capacity building sessions.”
“We have already agreed on the remuneration package, so this is to be presented to them, hopefully acceptable and we've done some informal discussions around it, and these will be followed by swearing in to take office,” he said.
“On the issue of reparations, we don't know how much it's going to cost. Once the commissioners are in place, having put in their policy, database; having known how many people they are to administer reparations, to having decided what types of programmes they're going to have, and communal reparations, then they can tell us the cost,” he informed.
“We will support them to mobilise those resources using a variety of methodologies, whether it's fundraising through our private sector, obviously government's direct contribution. Thus, the emphasis at the moment is getting the commission on its feet as quickly as possible for them to do that good work.”
“But we do know that even combining the victim center and the TRRC's databases, there probably are many other victims out there who never registered with either the victim center or the TRRC for one reason or another.”
He underscored that one is not a victim because she/he appeared before the TRRC. “You're a victim by virtue of what happened to you.”
“So it's extremely essential that the reparations commission affords another opportunity for victims to engage with them, to be part of this database, because based on who is seen as a victim or identified as such, only then would they be eligible for reparations.
