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INDEPENDENCE: Barrow Visits Ex-President Jawara

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By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow on Monday visited Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, the former president of The Gambia.

Jawara, 94, became the first president of The Gambia in 1970 having played a big role in the country’s independence efforts.

The Gambia gained independence on 18 February 1965 but it still remained under British control until 1970 when it became a republic and Jawara became the first president.

On Monday, Gambians converged on the MacCarthy Square in Banjul to mark 54 years of self-rule.

Speaking at the event, current president Adama Barrow said it was time that Gambians redefined nationalism.

“We must redefine and embrace nationalism to give it a Gambian character. This means rejecting all forms of socio-political discrimination…

“On the other hand, it is essential to develop a great sense of belonging to our motherland and commit ourselves to the ideals and values of the nation,” he said.

 

INDEPENDENCE: Barrow Sues for Commitment, Patience

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By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow has said that his government remains committed to efforts aimed at building a better Gambia.

He said there must be resolve, determination and commitment for the realisation of the change that Gambians desire.

Barrow made the remarks in an address at the MacCarthy Square in Banjul on Monday where Gambians gathered to mark the nation’s 54th Independence Anniversary.

Taking a peep at the nation’s journey in the past 54 years, the President said The Gambia since independence has been on a journey of greater freedom and prosperity.

He said: “As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. This applies to all nations and The Gambia is no exception. Therefore as Gambians we have to learn to be patient, realistic and positive.”

The president in his 18-minute address observed that his government has demonstrated willingness to “consult, listen and involve everyone and act on correct advice and knowledge.”

“I have no exclusion strategy based on political, social or any type of affiliation. As a government, we have demonstrated our willingness to consult, listen and involve everyone and act on correct advice and knowledge.

“We have shown strong leadership by consulting where prudent, by making appropriate decisions in all relevant circumstances and by taking necessary action where required,” the president said.

Pope Gathers Bishops for Summit to Tackle Child Sex Abuse Scandals

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Pope Francis gathers bishops from around the world at the Vatican this week for a hotly-awaited summit on tackling the wave of child sex abuse scandals assailing the Catholic Church.

The heads of around 100 bishops’ conferences from every continent will convene from Thursday to Sunday for the meeting on the protection of minors, with victims’ groups demanding that a concrete action plan on fighting paedophilia be drawn up.

The pope, who asked the bishops to speak to victims of abuse in their respective countries before the Rome convention, has tried to dial down “inflated expectations” for a cure-all.
Several victims were also invited to the Vatican.

“I ask you to pray for this meeting,” the pope said Sunday, adding that he wanted the meeting “as an act of strong pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time.”

The conference aims to be an opportunity to improve awareness of the global phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors within the Church, despite many in Africa, Asia and the Middle East being in denial of what they call “a Western problem”.

In many parts of the world, discussing violence towards children and even sex is taboo, leading the Vatican to organise this week’s “educational” gathering.

Some abuse victims, particularly from countries where their plight is ignored, have also been invited to attend.

“Someone who has met a victim, heard their cries for help, their tears, their psychological and physical wounds, can’t remain the same,” said German Jesuit priest Hans Zollner, a psychologist who travels the world educating priests and is one of the conference’s organisers.

“The Catholic Church has been faced with this problem for the last 35 years,” he said, hailing rigorous preventative measures taken in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland and the United States.

“It works: the number of new accusations of sexual assault in all these countries is now minimal,” he said.

The aim is for the heads of the world’s episcopal conferences to achieve “a feeling of collective responsibility” said Father Federico Lombardi, who will be leading debates during the conference.

“The credibility of the Church is at stake,” he said.

The summit comes after Pope Francis defrocked a former cardinal — American Theodore McCarrick — over accusations he sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago.

McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican’s College of Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse.

Chilean Vatican expert Luis Badilla said the meeting would be a “decisive moment for the pontificate”.

“We want this meeting to result in concrete measures,” he said, echoing victims’ hopes for the conference, being held in the wake of paedophile scandals that have shaken the Church particularly in Chile and in the United States.

The summit’s title, concerning “the protection of minors”, avoids using the words “sex” or “paedophilia”, noted Badilla.

That reflects the Church’s centuries-old instinct to protect its image, he said. But added “the only way to emerge from the crisis is to tell the whole truth”.

In France, prosecutors said Friday they were investigating a sexual assault complaint made against the Vatican’s envoy to Paris, 74-year-old Luigi Ventura.

He is accused of molesting an official at the Paris mayor’s office, a judicial source told AFP.
The pope has already warned those hoping the four-day meet will be a panacea that “the problem of abuse will continue”.

“By resolving the problem within the Church, through becoming aware, we will contribute to resolving it within society, within families, where the shame means everything is hidden,” Francis said.

The meeting will come up with “protocols for moving forward”, because “sometimes bishops don’t know what to do,” he said.

Father Zollner is also wary of people hoping for a magic wand of “new norms” that will make the problem simply disappear. Bishops must “change their attitude”, which can be more difficult than drawing up new rules or guidelines, he said.

The scale of the problem is impossible to measure statistically. A study in the United States said that between three and four percent of the clergy were involved in abuse before 2002, when stricter guidelines were published, said Zollner.

While the Catholic Church says it is trying to address the problem, other churches are also affected.

In the United States, the Protestant Southern Baptist Convention has been hit by a wide-ranging sex abuse scandal involving almost 400 pastors, volunteers and teachers over two decades.

Darboe to Critics: I Will Be Proud to Lead Gambia at Age 73

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By Lamin Njie

Vice president Ousainou Darboe has said that he will be proud to lead The Gambia when he turns 73.

Darboe stated this in Bakoteh on Saturday while slapping back at his critics who continue to question his credentials to lead The Gambia.

“I am saying that I am not desperate to be president of The Gambia but I will be proud to lead The Gambia when I am aged 73. I will be proud to do that. Buhari is more than 73 years. There are a lot of them,” he said.

Darboe will be 73 years old in 2021 when The Gambia will hold general elections and according to the UDP leader “age gives birth to wisdom.”

“So if they say I am old, I agree… They sit and say he’s not contented. What is there to be not content about? They’re there saying he’s old. I agree. I thank God. They said we are ANC. Nelson Mandela at 72 walked out of prison and led South Africa,” he said.

SELF-PRAISE: Darboe Launches Fresh Attack on Barrow, Others

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By Lamin Njie

Vice president Ousainou Darboe has slammed Gambian politicians who are engaged in the business of self-adulation.

Some Gambian politicians among them President Adama Barrow have been bragging about their contribution in the fight to end Jammeh’s rule.

President Barrow in a recent interview with GRTS boasted that he is the one who led the Jammeh defenestration effort.

But Darboe, speaking to a crowd of supporters in Bakoteh in his capacity as the leader of the United Democratic Party on Saturday, said that it is in fact the spirit of Solo Sandeng that jolted an out-of-sorts citizenry.

“Today, we’re all getting selfish. We all stand at platforms saying, ‘I did this,'” Mr Darboe said.

“[But we forget] what is referred to in Latin as Causa Causis – the cause of the causes. That is Solo Sandeng. He is the primary cause for Gambia’s liberation. But we stand and say, ‘I did this, I did this’ while forgetting that Solo Sandeng’s spirit who you know pushed people to go out.”

Darboe also said Gambian politicians “cannot engage in self-adulation, in self-glorification and forget Solo Sandeng.”

He said: “If we didn’t go out, nobody was going to win that election, whoever you might be. Nobody! We should all pay tribute to Solo Sandeng, we should all acknowledge Solo Sandeng, his supreme sacrifice.

“He was the cause and we should all acknowledge that. If we didn’t, then we are being ungrateful, we are not being truthful to ourselves. We have gone through a lot.

“No one should come forward and say, ‘I did this.’ That’s not true. We have in our midst people who have actually truly led the struggle, not some of us who are claiming to be the people who defeated Jammeh.”

Stop Insulting Each Other, Barrow Begs Gambians

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By Lamin Njie

President Adama Barrow has said that Gambians have to learn how to talk to each other if the country is to solve its problems.

The president stated this on Saturday while presiding over the launch of the 35 million dollars Banjul sewage, drainage and road rehabilitation project.

Gambians have in the past few years intensified their debates in respect of governance in the country, debates that are often characterised by insult trading and personal attacks.

But President Barrow in a  speech on Saturday said insults and personal attacks do not take a country forward.

The President said: “It’s only through dialogue that a country can move forward. So I am asking Gambians; let’s come together. That’s the only thing that will take us forward. But all the debates, insulting one another, attacking one another [this] has no use. It won’t take our country forward.”

According to the president, the Banjul sewage, drainage and road rehabilitation project was part of his government’s efforts to fix the country’s capital.

“I want to tell the people of Banjul my government has resolved to develop this country and I have said that 2019 will be a turning point and it should be a turning point in Banjul too,” the president said.

TRRC Tours NIA HQ

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The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission Friday visited the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency now State Intelligence Service.

The TRRC is an investigation into the human rights violations and abuses which occurred in the 22 years rule of former president Yahya Jammeh.

The NIA headquarters has been identified as one of the places allegedly used by the former president to detain, torture and even kill his opponents.

The TRRC during its Friday visit toured the famous Bambadinka cell, an interrogation room, two investigation cells, a staff clinic and 10 round hooks detached from a wall in a room and a metal table bed.

Upon arrival, Ousman Sowe, director general of Intelligence welcomed the officials of the commission and produced some pictures of the old structures prior to his appointment two years back.

He described the visit as significant while assuring the support of his institution to the commission, adding that the success of the commission will be historic in the history of the county.

“The TRRC will be a turning page; it will be a coach to this country where it was to where it is going” adding no more excess was an operational guidelines,” he said.

Mr. Sowe, who has been working for the intelligent for 24 years, said so many rehabilitation and reformation have taken place since he took the helm of leadership at SIS, adding the focus the SIS is on national intelligence.

Former head of investigation at the defunct NIA, Sowe said part of rehabilitating and transforming the headquarters was the unfit environment for official duties and that they wanted to put off anything that was against human rights violation to have occurred.

Lamin J Sise, lead commissioner said: “previous intelligences were mentioned during the testimonies by the witnesses and we want to know that, educate and familiarizes ourselves and see what happens. We want to mean our words.”

Lead counsel Essa Faal, urged officials of SIS to halt rehabilitating and transformation structures of the SIS premises in the interest of the commission and investigation that may be carried out.

Meanwhile, the commission requested an inventory of evidence in both documentary record and equipment allegedly used on witnesses.

Welcoming the National Human Rights Commission

Finally, the Gambia has joined the group of nations that have realised the importance of human rights and the value of their citizens by creating a National Human Rights Commission. The effort to create this Commission began way back in 2012 even though the APRC Government was not truly keen in creating this body. Therefore, the Barrow Government deserves commendation for doing what must be done or should have been done way back.

 

National human rights commissions have become one of those indispensable independent institutions that have been considered to be essential to ensure not only the protection of human rights but by so doing also promoting democracy, good governance and sustainable development in a country. This is because human rights encompass all aspects of human life and society such that everything and anything in life is practically about human rights.

 

Whether citizens will access affordable and quality water and electricity supply or not or will obtain a job or enjoy quality healthcare as well as be able to express one’s opinion or protest against the Government or not are all aspects of human rights. Hence human rights are a life and death issue. When citizens die from preventable diseases or roads are poor or children are given poor quality education, or a public officer can take a bribe or police officer can slap a taxi driver or there is misuse of public funds it all indicates that human rights are under threat in that society. Essentially the security, peace and progress of any individual and society lie in the extent to which human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled in that country.

 

Now that the Gambia has a human rights commission which is constituted by individuals of high standing the task now is for citizens to cooperate with this body by supporting its objectives and activities as well as holding the Commission and its members to account. The success of this Commission cannot be removed from the cooperation of public institutions, private sector, civil society and indeed ordinary Gambian citizens.

 

The act establishing the body has clearly stated its objectives which are broadly to promote and protect human rights, monitor, receive and investigate violations or complaints, report its decisions to Government for redress as well as provide human rights education to the public. It is also the aim of the Commission to ensure that the Gambia Government meets its international obligations.

 

In order to be able to perform its functions effectively and efficiently the Commission enjoys the same powers and status of a high court so that it can hear any complaint, summon anyone to testify, examine witnesses on oath, compel individuals or entities to produce documents, examine witnesses abroad as well as enforce its decisions! Wow!! So, this means the National Huma Rights Commission is indeed powerful and therefore they have no excuse not to look into any human rights issue in the Gambia.

 

As citizens we need to watch over this Commission to ensure that the Commissioners are acting according to the law that establishes the body. But also, we need to stand by the Commission to ensure that the Gambia Government does not interfere, undermine, suppress or harm the body in anyway. It happens in many countries especially in Africa where some governments seek to undermine and weaken the national human rights commission because the government does not want the commission to investigate and report on human rights issues since it is usually governments that in fact violate rights.

 

National human rights bodies have an international network that seeks to promote their independence, professionalism and efficiency based on what is called the ‘Paris Principles’. These principles are a set of values and standards that guide the operations of a human rights commission. Those commissions that exercise high values and standards are graded into A, B or C status to indicate how well they are performing. We hope the Gambia Human Rights Commission shall always enjoy an A Status in its lifetime by doing its work free from politics, corruption and inefficiency.

 

While congratulating the Gambia Government and indeed the first-ever Commissioners of this glorious national institution and in particular my own buddies, Emanuel Joof and Njundu Drammeh, I wish to urge that the Commissioners become revolutionary, innovative, bold and vigilant to the highest level. This is because the abuse of human rights is widespread and deep in the Gambia. Not only at police stations and public institutions but one can see clear and direct abuse of rights in our homes, communities, streets, schools, hospitals, beaches and indeed everywhere in the Gambia every day.

 

It is precisely because of the at-risk nature of human rights in the Gambia that this pioneering Commissioners have a tough but noble task to set the standards and values for the respect and protection of human rights. As the pioneers, the future of this Commission and the degree to which human rights protection will be in the Gambia rests with the kind of path that these Commissioners will set. Will they make this body an inefficient, inconsequential and toothless bulldog or will they make this Commission a force to be reckoned with? Time will tell!

 

Let me just say that this body is utterly urgent, necessary and timely. It will serve to strengthen the culture and practice of accountability in our society without which there cannot be protection, democracy, good governance and sustainable development. Therefore, no human rights issue must be left unaddressed even if it is not popular with Gambians. The protection of human rights and human dignity must not be side-lined in the name of religion, culture or peace. Rather the Commissioners must vow to ensure that Gambians enjoy their human rights without fetters in full and at all times and no one and nothing must stand against that.

 

Congratulations esteemed Commissioners! Together we shall make the protection of human rights a reality in the Gambia.

 

For the Gambia Our Homeland

……………………………………………..

Madi Jobarteh

Skype: madi.jobarteh

Twitter: @jobartehmadi

LinkedIn: Madi Jobarteh

Phone: +220 9995093

“Africa needs a new type of citizen: A dedicated, modest, honest, informed man and woman who submerge self in service to the nation and mankind. A man and woman who abhor greed and detest vanity. A new type of man and woman whose humility is his and her strength and whose integrity is his and her greatness” – Nkrumah.

“To protect the Treasury from being defrauded, let all money be issued openly in front of the whole city (country), and let copies of the accounts be deposited in various wards (regions).” Aristotle

 

1994 COUP: Senegal Slammed for Helping Jammeh

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A former aide-de-camp to former president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara has that Senegal lent a helping hand to the 1994 coup which brought former president Yahya Jammeh to power.

Momodou Lamin Gassama testifying before the TRRC on Thursday said Senegal directed Jawara not to stage a comeback in exchange for him to be granted sanctuary. Abdou Diouf was Senegal’s president at the time.

“Senegalese government refused to accept Sir Dawda Jawara. They said they will accept him on the terms if he wouldn’t interfere to come back to power. It took us 3 days before Senegal accepted Jawara,” Gassama told the TRRC.

He said Jawara and 46 others were evacuated to Senegal on an American war ship and that in Senegal, they were not giving presidential welcome but a normal welcome that was rushed, adding upon their arrival at Senegal, Jawara was taken to Medine before he left for England.

US’ Role

Meanwhile Gassama told the commission that the 1994 coup could have been foiled if his suggestion to the American ambassador was accepted, adding at the time the caliber of weapons American soldiers were having on the ship could stop the coupists from taking over the State House.

He said: “I didn’t trust the American ambassador, I see him to have interfere in the internal politics of the country. Whatever was happening he was the obstacle of it. I suspect him to be part of it.”

He also leveled his blamed on the them American ambassador to The Gambia to had wrote an article on the defunct Daily Observer Newspaper criticizing the PPP government for bad pay.

He added that in the initial stage of the coup on July 22, 1994, he informed Jawara to leave State House for Senegal but that Jawara was not willing to go, adding they had convinced him on a number of times before he would accept.

Wade Counsels Violence in Senegal Vote

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Former Senegalese president Abdoulai Wade has called on supporters of his PDS party to attack polling stations in the upcoming elections and burn ballot boxes.

During a meeting with the steering committee of the PDS party, Wade said there are about 352,000 non-existing voters created by Macky Sall in an attempt to lead in the first round of the elections.

His statements have attracted condemnation.

Meanwhile the special representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mr Mohamed Ibn Chambas has called on all the candidates to appeal to their supporters to stay away from all violence during the campaign.

This call was made following the incident that took place in Tamba between members of PUR and BBY resulting to the death of three people.

The National Assembly is to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the 94 billion case of Mamur Diallo by Ousman Sonko. This commission will draft a resolution for this case in the preliminary session of the National Assembly next week Friday.

1994 COUP: Gassama Says Ex-Justice Minister Hassan Jallow Didn’t Come with Ex-President Jawara to State House from Airport

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Former president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara’s longtime aide-de-camp on Thursday said the former president returned to the country from London a day before the 1994 coup but the justice minister at the time who received him at the airport did not come with him to State House.

Former army captain Momodou Lamin Gassama testifying before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission referring to the coup said “he didn’t “see anything” on their arrival from London only that “there were fewer people.”

Gassama said: “Normally you have a big entourage of people coming to receive the president. I know the vice president wasn’t there. He was there normally and if he is in the country he should be the person to receive the president. If he is out of the country, then the next senior in terms ministerial responsibilities, the minister of justice would assume that responsibility and then receive the president like in this particular case Hassan Jallow was there who received him. So, the vice president wasn’t there. I have no idea where he was, whether he was out of the country or in the country. I have no idea at that time.

“From the airport normally, we’ll head back to the State House. The protocol had always been, on arrival at State House, the president will go to his drawing room and then the vice president should be there to brief him about what transpired in the country [and] virtually handing over command control, what has happened in his absence by briefing note. So this may take about half an hour or one hour while they are having tea and then before he retires.

“On this particular occassion, when we got to the drawing room, and he paused and then he was looking back to receive Hassan Jallow and then he said, ‘so, where is Hassan?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ ‘So he’s not coming?’ That’s where I just went downstairs. I enquired. Well, some said at the time, he branched off around Westfield.

“I came and report to him exactly what happened. He didn’t come with us. So he branched off from Westfield junction. Some said Siting Corner. So I told the president. He just shrugged his shoulders and he went in. He didn’t say anything. I don’t want to guess whether he knew his role, whether he’s been briefed properly. That’s what supposed to happen I don’t know.”

Hassan Jallow is now the chief justice of The Gambia.

Breaking: Police Raid Homes to Stop Valentine’s Day Celebrations in…

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Valentine’s Day wasn’t getting much love in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation Thursday as Indonesian authorities urged amorous couples to call it quits and carried out raids to quash any wayward gift-giving.

About 100 students in the second-biggest city, Surabaya, demonstrated against the chocolates-and-flowers celebration, saying it promoted Western decadence and casual sex.

“Say no to Valentine’s now!” chanted the high schoolers, most of them teenaged girls in hijab head coverings.

Some held placards with phrases like “Sorry Valentine’s Day, I am Muslim”.
School principal Arief Himawan warned that couples giving each other chocolates or other treats can quickly lead to sin.

“We want to remind our young generation not to be caught up in Western culture,” he told AFP.

Authorities conducted raids in Surabaya, and Makassar city on Sulawesi island to snuff out any celebrations. In conservative Aceh province — the only place in Indonesia that imposes Islamic law — a fresh Valentine’s prohibition was issued, citing religious norms.

People are publicly whipped in the region for a wide range of offenses including selling alcohol and gay sex and similar bans have been ordered in previous years.

While Valentine’s was off the cards for some, many Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam and celebrate the day with chocolates and flowers for their loved ones.

Meanwhile in India, more than 10,000 schoolchildren, some as young as six, made a Valentine’s Day pledge not to marry without their parents’ consent.

The vast majority of Indian marriages are arranged by families and couples who defy tradition to marry outside caste and religion face a severe and sometimes deadly backlash.

Some 10,000 pupils aged six to 17 and even some teachers took a vow at 25 schools to “love and respect their parents till eternity” in the western state of Gujarat — the stronghold of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I will always respect their decision because no one in the world has sacrificed for me like them,” said student Samadrita Banerjee.

People in swifty-changing but still largely conservative India also often frown upon unmarried couples who can find themselves being abused and harassed in public places.

Elsewhere, a school association in the southern state of Karnataka alerted teachers and parents to ensure children did not celebrate Valentine’s Day by bunking classes to go to shopping malls or the movies, The Times of India newspaper reported.

‘I Didn’t Want to Die That’s Why I Worked for Jammeh’

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A former lands minister Lamin Wa Juwara has said that he would have been dead if he had refused to work for former president Yahya Jammeh.

Juwara served in various respectable positions in the government of President before he was disgraced in brutal fashion.

Testifying before the TRRC on Wednesday, Juwara said Jammeh was very angry with him at the time and that the only solution was to work for him.

“At the time it was a question of joining or die, because Jammeh was very angry with me for what I stand for. Jammeh thought I accepted him but I never accepted him. It was a question of survival tactic,” he said.

He said him worked under Jammeh doesn’t mean joining him but that he served under Jammeh to save his life and contribute his quota to the development of the country.

He added: “I was not happy sitting in the cabinet with Jammeh, he was dictating everything because he was a dictator. Nobody would be proud of associating with Jammeh. Dictatorship will never be accepted in this country anymore.”

Meanwhile, Lamin Wa Juwara has called for Gambians to forget about the past and reconcile.

“We have to accept what have happened and forgive each other. The country is important than anyone- even Yahya Jammeh, the country is more important than him,” Juwara said.

Army Chief Kinteh Must Suspend Officers Who Confess to Torture – Jobarteh

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Madi Jobarteh has said that the chief of defense staff of the Gambia Armed Forces must suspend security personnel who confess to torture.

A Gambian army captain Bubacarr Bah on Tuesday told the TRRC it was him who battered former agriculture minister Omar Jallow. The incident happened in 1995.

Jobarteh, a straight-talking political commentator, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “The CDS must suspend security personnel who confess to torture until the TRRC decides their fate! Such officers must not continue to wear the uniform of The Gambia Armed Forces. They have lost legitimacy the moment they transformed people’s power entrusted to them to abuse citizens.”

Jammeh’s Ex-Minister Juwara Says Baba Jobe, His Boys Attempted to Kill him

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Lamin Wa Juwara on Wednesday said Baba Jobe and his boys beat him and broke his finger.

Testifying before the TRRC, Mr Juwara who served as a minister in former president Yahya Jammeh said this happened in 1994 while he was being escorting to Mile Two prison.

“Baba Jobe and his boys attacked me and broke my finger with the aim of killing me but some soldiers intervened and rescued me in their hands. Baba was working [for] Jammeh and not the government. He was part of the system that created problem for the people of the country,” Juwara told the TRRC.

According to Juwara, the condition at Mile Two during his detention there as bad saying “I was put on the same cell with Imam Touray and we were made to sleep on the ground.”

He added that he was also arrested in 1996 and detained at Fajara police to Yundum police and then taken to Janjangbureh prison where he said to have spent 13 months.

Mr. Juwara told the commission that the prison was overcrowded, adding that all these arrest of him that he was neither charged nor taken to a court of law.

He said while in detention at Janjabureh prison, he was tortured by Momodou Bojang -commissioner of Maccarty Division but that before Bojang left for the United States of America apologized to him.

“I was tortured and incurred certain wounds from the beaten in fact, I was molested,” while admitted writing a letter to ex-president Jammeh while in detention at Janjabureh prison that resulted to his release in prison, adding the Junta was aware of his plans.

LAMIN NJIE: President Barrow can go ahead and do five years but there will be a cane swinging over his head

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President Barrow should by rights step aside in December. He has in the past 24 months proven to be not good enough for what is definitely one of the toughest jobs in the land.

On the face of it, that president Barrow is of a mind to serve for five years instead of the three years he promised us shouldn’t come as a surprise. What about the furore it has set off? We’ll get to that in due course.

Certainly, while many rejoiced when a tired-looking president-elect told a French journalist he will leave office after three years, there were some to whom it never seemed unthinkable he could have a change of heart.  And then suddenly this has come to pass.

It is not hard to pick together the president’s action. Human beings are always human beings. Sometimes, they make a hash of things. That’s what has happened in this case. It’s not the end of the world. Not at all.

But ever so loudly, the debate of whether President Barrow should step down after three years or stay beyond the period has become rather heated. Everyone is so invested, everyone so ensnared in it. Much continues to be made of it, quite awesomely.

Of course, those against the president staying beyond three years are more than those who support his plan to do five years. It’s something I pin on his inability to find his groove after over two years in office. A little mean, perhaps, but understandable.

But let me put this one this way then: it shouldn’t come off as a big deal for the president to want to do five years as sanctioned by the constitution to finish up the key projects he has started. Any reasonable man should have no problem with this.

I think the reason why so many people are these days urging the president to go home in December is that he has stumbled at every turn, something that is due to his lack of preparedness.

But somehow, President Barrow has strong backing in some quarters. The UDP quarter is a huge fillip even if many of the party’s adherents have now started pulling away.

Still, for Barrow to have the temerity to say he is going for what the constitution says knowing full well it doesn’t constitute a crime if he resigns after three years now sets the stage for a bitter political row. Ladies and gentlemen, this will be enervating so buckle up.

Yet, even if the president survives, there will be a cane swinging over his head. Gambians will still be lying in wait for him. It will be a case of eating a well done Super Kanja and tearing up because there’s too much pepper.

Gambians need to take ownership of their future

After listening to Mr. Cham from the (TRRC) I was able to learn the true History of the Gambia. The moral values of a country are in the hands of her citizens. Government is by the people and for the people. a country cannot be developed without the development of her citizens that’s why the government of the Gambia should invest more into its youth until then we cannot determine the development of the country.

Gambians need to take ownership of their country and stop the daydreaming that the Western world will give us money and build the country for us. We ourselves should create a future for the generation because a future doesn’t build itself. Citizens should be ready to make that future possible just like Singapore today the owner part of the global economy thanks to a great foundation.

the issue of nationalism should be a priority for every Gambian am not against globalism because clearly, no country can make it on its own, but we have to respect our priorities and know that you can’t help someone else develop when your people are dying of hunger and need medical aid, a clear example is the First Lady’s appointment by the African Union to lead the pollution-free Africa. I find that too insulting to the Gambia because our capital city alone is the worst capital on earth before you embark on cleaning the whole of Africa why not start with your home, the miss priorities of our country is getting out of hand. Is only in Africa that you see people going into politics just to enrich themselves and their families. We can’t afford to keep anticipating for a future that has no beginning.

My advice to young people is open your eyes and know that the future is today not tomorrow.
Thank you and God bless the Gambia ??.

The IGP cannot deny Fundamental Rights and Freedoms! The Right to Demonstrate is Constitutionally Guaranteed!

The announcement by the IGP claiming that citizens have to first seek a permit in order to demonstrate is not based on law and I urge citizens to consider his statement only as a figment of his own imagination. The IGP is a duty bearer who is mandated by our Constitution and the Police Act to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens by enforcing the law. Law enforcement is basically human rights work since the law and order that are maintained are meant to ensure that the rights, life and property of citizens are protected by the police. Law enforcement entails protecting the rights of citizens to protest as they wish!

 

It is necessary that citizens realise that Section 25 subsection 1(d) guarantees the right to freedom of assembly and the right to demonstrate peacefully without use of arms or violence. Subsection 4 of this provision creates restrictions as to how the right to demonstrate may be exercised because to demonstrate is not an absolute right. The Constitution provides that this right can only be limited provided that such limitation is reasonable and backed by law, necessary in a democratic society and that such limitation serves a legitimate purpose such as protecting national security, decency or public order.

 

Section 25 of the Constitution did not state that the right to demonstrate can be denied. It only provides for restrictions in the best interest of society. Unfortunately, in the Gambia there is a Public Order Act which has directly and deliberately contravened the Constitution, yet the Supreme Court went ahead to shamefully rule in November 2017 that this colonial law was indeed constitutional! We must not allow the seizure of rights to take place ever again in this country!

 

What the Public Order Act did was to counter the Constitution by giving power to the Government to deny citizens right to demonstrate under sections 5 and 6. These provisions state that citizens must first request and obtain a permit in order to demonstrate from the IGP or any authorized person of the President. The Act went further to state that the IGP or the authorized person can grant or deny the permit if he deems fit. But the Constitution did not state anywhere that the right to demonstrate can be denied. How can any law or individual therefore deny a right when the Constitution guaranteed that right to be enjoyed, even if it has to be limited?

 

Even if we confine ourselves only to the Public Order Act it will show that the statement by the IGP that citizens should seek a permit before embarking on a demonstration is false. This is because the Act only requires citizens to seek a permit only if one wishes to embark on a procession or use a public address system. Other than that, the Public Order Act does not require any citizen to seek any permit to demonstrate. The Public Order Act provides that citizens can assemble in one location to express themselves as much as they can without going on a procession and use of a loudspeaker. Therefore, on what basis does the IGP insist that citizens need a permit to demonstrate?

 

Secondly it is a false claim by the IGP that everywhere in the world citizens request a permit first before they demonstrate. In many countries in Africa such as Ghana, there is no law requiring a permit to demonstrate. Public order laws in many countries that are democratic only require citizens to notify the police days before their planned protest so that the police can be better prepared to provide security to demonstrators, counter demonstrators and ordinary citizens going about their normal business. In fact, in those laws the failure to notify the police is not a crime!

 

The Gambia Government, in particular the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Justice and the IGP must speak and act in the language and culture of democracy. They must realise that dictatorship was killed in the Gambia on 1st December 2016 and never to emerge again. Hence what we expect the IGP to say was to encourage Gambians to notify the police in good time if they wish to demonstrate. But the IGP has no powers or authority to threaten or deny citizens who wish to demonstrate.

 

Furthermore, one would have thought that the Public Order Act would have been one of the first pieces of legislation that the Barrow Government would have taken before the National Assembly to repeal and replace with a truly democratic and human rights-friendly Public Order Act. In his Manifesto and in their MoU both Adama Barrow and the Coalition Leaders respectively did state that within six months of coming to office they will repeal all laws that infringe human rights, democracy and popular participation. They specifically mentioned the Public Order Act! Yet for more than two years they have woefully failed to fulfil this promise but could easily and quickly change other constitutional provisions and laws that suit their selfish political interests! Shame.

 

What is even more insulting is that it was because of this unconstitutional Public Order Act that several Gambians were killed, jailed, raped, exiled and their properties destroyed. In fact, the victims of the Public Order Act can be found right inside the Cabinet of Chief Servant Adama Barrow. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy and unpatriotism that the people who obtained the mandate of the people in the fight against the Public Order Act would now take office only to stamp this bad, unconstitutional and colonial law on the heads of Gambians. The Late Femi Peters, who was jailed for one year for violating the Public Order Act in 2010, must indeed be very disappointed in this IGP for celebrating the bad law!

 

I demand that the IGP withdraw his unfounded and false claim that the law requires citizens to obtain a permit before they demonstrate and that is what obtains everywhere in the world. That is a claim that is shamefully untrue and only intended to suppress Gambians once more. All citizens must rise up against this IGP and demand his resignation or dismissal for having the temerity to impose a colonial and an authoritarian law on the heads of Gambians contrary to our Constitution and making mockery of our hard-earned democracy! If the IGP cannot protect and expand citizens fundamental rights and freedoms, then he is not fit to be the IGP. Shame!

 

For the Gambia Our Homeland!

Madi Jobarteh, Private Citizen.

‘General Saul Badgie Gave Me Orders to Plant Bombs’

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Captain Bubacarr Bah of the Gambia Armed Forces on Tuesday told the TRRC he was given instructions by Saul Badge to plant bombs at the Gambia National Petroleum Company.

Saul Badjie is a former Gambian army general who fled The Gambia for Equatorial Guinea with ex-president Jammeh.

“Saul Badjie told me that the coalition members are bent on revenge and vengeance. He (Saul Badjie) gave me tasks to plant explosives at the GNPC and they will put the blame on them (coalition). He is a foolish man,” he said.

Bah said they were receiving ‘hazardous’ instructions from Saul Badjie during the political impasse and that they were told to build fighting positions across the greater Banjul area.

He said: “I told my officers that I am not going to follow this man (Yahya Jammeh) because he has been here for 22 years and Gambians have voted him out.”

However, he explained his arrest and detention during the political impasse that he was arrested with Captain Demba Baldeh at Fajara Barracks after his commanding officer colonel Essa Tamba called for meeting ordering him to tell other officers not to come with their weapons to the meeting.

He added he later heard vehicles roaring and later some military police from State House came and entered forcefully into the house they were holding the meeting led by Lieutenant Nuha Williams.

He said he and Captain Demba Baldeh were taken to the NIA headquarters in Banjul where they found another officers – Major Sidi Joof, Major Yusupha Jammeh, adding he was kept with the other officers until ex-president Jammeh left the country for exile into Equatorial Guinea.

Mai Fatty Scoffs at Claims he Signed Pact for Gambians to be Deported from Europe

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By Lamin Njie

Former Interior Minister Mai Ahmad Fatty has dismissed allegations that he signed a pact for Gambians to be deported from Europe.

Allegations last week abounded of Fatty signing a deal on behalf of the Gambia government for the deportation of thousands of undocumented Gambians from Europe.

The special adviser to President Adama Barrow says reports linking him to the signing of an alleged deportation agreement between the Gambia government and European Union during his time as Interior minister are false and part of a campaign instigated by enemies to tarnish his political image, The Standard newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“It is very necessary for me to come out and clarify myself on these allegations. The signing ceremony was on the 3rd November 2017 and it was between The Gambia and the EU to help transport stranded Gambian migrants who were subjected to slavery and other maltreatments at the hands of smugglers and other syndicates. It was never for deportation of migrants already in Europe. And any case none of that money even went to my ministry. Rather it was used by the EU itself to hire airplanes among other things to bring back our stranded and frustrated citizens to their families,” Fatty said.

Fatty was The Gambia’s interior minister between February 2017 to November 2017.

According to him, the agreement to support Gambian migrants from Libya was signed publicly in the presence of the media.

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