(Banjul) A “Truth and Reconciliation” commission which investigated in The Gambia the alleged crimes committed during the 22 years in power of Yahya Jammeh recommends legal proceedings against the ex-dictator and several alleged accomplices before an international tribunal.
The Commission “recommends the prosecution of Yahya Jammeh and his accomplices before an international tribunal, in a West African country other than The Gambia, under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and or the African Union ”, for in particular“ murders, arbitrary detentions, disappearances ”, according to the document.
This tribunal could be similar to the one which tried in Senegal the former Chadian head of state Hissène Habré, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990. Mr. Habré, who died in August of COVID-19, had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 by an African court for crimes against humanity, rape, executions, slavery and kidnapping.
“Senegal has (still) in place the necessary infrastructure which had judged Hissène Habré. Ghana (of which 44 migrants are presumed to have been killed under Jammeh) is another option ”, as is Sierra Leone, says the report of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRCC), presented on Friday in Banjul by the Minister of Justice Dawdu Jallow.
“During a period of 22 years, from July 22, 1994 (date of his seizure of power), Yahya Jammeh and his colleagues (members of the APRC, the presidential party) and other co-authors perpetrated serious crimes in The Gambia, ”the report says.
The 17-volume document was handed over to President Adama Barrow on November 25 by the commission, which had not published its contents.
The TRCC reported on the extent of the crimes perpetrated under Yahya Jammeh in this small, poor and landlocked country in West Africa: assassinations, acts of torture, enforced disappearances, rapes and castrations, arbitrary arrests, witch hunts, until the forced administration of a bogus treatment against AIDS. Between 240 and 250 people have died at the hands of the state and its agents, she said.
The commission, created in 2017, heard from January 2019 to May 2021 393 witnesses, victims and former “junglers” (“bushmen”), members of the death squads of the regime, who came to tell during public hearings sometimes upsetting. the regime’s atrocities. Numerous depositions directly implicated Mr. Jammeh.
Government’s “white paper”
Justice Minister Jallow said the Gambian government was “committed to implementing the recommendations of the report”. He reaffirmed the announcement already made by the government to publish “a white paper” on these recommendations no later than May 25, 2022.
The commission “calls for bringing Yahya Jammeh and his accomplices to justice. She presented evidence relating to several crimes of murder, torture and rape and suggested a court likely to try them, ”Reed Brody, an American lawyer involved with the victims, told AFP.
“After the powerful public testimonies (of the victims) before the TRRC which deeply touched the Gambians, there will be a lot of pressure in The Gambia and abroad, for justice to be done without delay for the victims who have already waited five years and sometimes longer, ”said Brody.
The TRRC report comes two weeks after the re-election of President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 ended more than 20 years of dictatorship.
Speaking on prosecutions against perpetrators in the Jammeh years, Mr Barrow had on December 7, when his re-election was announced, said: ‘I am part of the decision, but it is not entirely my decision. decision ”.
The decision will be taken in consultation with his government and after consultation with experts, he said. Mr Barrow has six months to speak.
The TRRC had described in an interim report published in April 2020 the human rights violations under Yahya Jammeh as “massive, appalling and diverse”.
After the presidential election at the end of 2016 won by Mr. Barrow and six weeks of a twisting crisis caused by Mr. Jammeh’s refusal to cede power, the latter had finally had to leave the country for Equatorial Guinea, under the pressure of ‘a West African military intervention and following a final Guinean-Mauritanian mediation.