If you are an evil man and interested in the subject of torture and how to break another man down real quick and easy without much effort, you need not worry – you may go ahead and pin your hopes on The Gambia’s President, Yahya Jammeh’s National Intelligence Agency publishing a recipe book on the matter.  This after all, is the group that uses phrases like “Let’s take him/her to school” when referring to taking someone for torture.

Human rights and governance under Jammeh has been the subject of intense discussion both at the local and international levels.  The situation is so dire, the European Union was forced to withhold funds earmarked for development purposes, and the United States government was forced to kick Gambia out of the Africa growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) – an incentive based program created to help boost African economies.

So when former members of the torture squads come out with damning evidence of the extent of the abuse, they only confirm what many have lived and known about already.  However, admittedly, many observers are shocked at how catastrophic the situation really is after hearing some of the details from these individuals.  As one of them put it “this is a torture routine that will make even Satan cringe.”

According to the former administrators of this evil, the victims are first undressed, and then a black plastic bag is put over their heads.  For men, their genitalia is usually the first target as torturers believe that is the best way to leave a lasting damage that will continue to haunt the victim even when he is released.  Once they feel the manhood is destroyed to the point the person will not be able to perform in bed for a long time, then plastic bags are burned while the liquid drops on the victim’s heads for what they (NIA) see as inducing a confession.  They even have a trick for how to get someone to confess real quickly: Electrocution – a cable wire is tied on the victim’s tongue, ears and private part while the machine is operated.  This has been administered to many who have refused to incriminate themselves in a crime they didn’t even commit, and their court date is fast approaching.

To make the tortures as private and discrete as possible, several places have been identified by the NIA as the ideal spots: The NIA Headquarters itself and Bond Road, at an old house over there by the bridge.  Where they choose to torture depends on the time of the day that the torture takes place – the NIA is ideal for night time because during the day, someone at the nearby Attorney General Chambers will be able to hear the screaming sound of the victim, while day time tortures take place at Bond Road which is totally isolated.  According these agents, Jammeh loves to listen in while the tortures take place and he could usually be heard giggling in the background.

For the most unlucky victims – these are the ones Jammeh decides should be killed, there is a recipe for a slow death that works like magic.  A battery is secured from Tati Perreh, a place at the Albert Market, next to the shop of one gentleman by the name Hydara.  The substance in the battery is mixed with ‘soda,’ a local hair relaxer, and a little bit of acid. This is then mixed with Armanti Mayonnaise and put in the food of the victims.  Both the late Baba Jobe and late Vincent Jatta were victims of this poison mix.

It must be noted that these routines outlined are the work of the NIA.  The assassination group called the Jungulars, led by the notorious Sanna Manjang have their own methods, key among which are the dismemberment of the victims, and cutting their fleshes and stomachs open while they are wide awake.

The Gambia will from this month, January, 2016 return to the old National Identity Cards, months after the country’s Immigration Department stopped issuing biometric ID Cards to Gambians and Non-Gambians. Sources close to the Immigration Department has indicated that the Government of the Gambia through the Ministry of Interior was unable to convince Pristine Consulting to continue running the costly Gambia Biometric Identity System (GAMBIS), which was launched in August, 2009 despite criticism analysts that The Gambia wasn’t ready financial and technically for such an ambitious project.

The issue between The Gambia Government and Pristine started in the first quarter of 2015 when Pristine Consulting made frantic efforts to recover more than One Million Dollars (39 million Dalasi) owed to the company over the years by The Jammeh regime as part of the GAMBIS project partnership.

The partnership was in such a way that Pristine Company was pre-financing the ordering of materials, production of the biometric identifications and maintenance of the system. In return Gambia government was to occasionally remit the incurred costs and part of the proceeds to the company, which government has failed to do regularly over the years accruing the huge debt. Pristine has since insisted that The Jammeh regime must pay the over 1 million dollar accumulated amount before they can continue the partnership. Unable to pay the money due to the country’s struggling economy, the Immigration Department could not for several months issue Identification cards and driving licenses and yet ask people to pay the fees. Receipts were given after payments with an excuse that the “Machine has a Problem but will be fix soon”.

The Gambia Biometric Identity System (GAMBIS) project was intended to be an integrated system in which Government will capture biometric details for all citizens and aliens in the country such as National Identity Card, Residential Permit and Driving Licenses. If it was successful, the project was to include passports and others such as birth, death and marriage certificates.

Cognizant that Pristine Consulting will no longer be spending money to order materials unless paid what is owed to them, the Interior Ministry through the Immigration has reintroduce the old laminated ID card and through the Police Force, the older small booklet type of the Driving License.

Decency dictates that we adhere to decorum at all times.  You can tell the scumbags and the worst of the rotten by the way people act in circumstances where basic norms of humanity are supposed to be followed.  Those basic norms are the reasons why we have the Geneva Convention for example.  That Convention established protocols in war with a view to set rules as to what is acceptable and not acceptable even in situations where mortal enemies are engaged in a confrontation.

How to treat prisoners of war, return of dead bodies to the opposing side, not shooting when the enemy surrenders, are all rules that every decent country must follow.  The ones that are not following these rules are scolded for their lack of decency and respect.  As it turns out; criminals, Terrorist, scumbags, evil people are not surprisingly the main culprits.

So when Yahya Jammeh decided to not return bodies of the December 30 attacks, it did not come as a surprise since that man is evil, vindictive, criminal, and lacks basic human decency.  This is the man who wouldn’t to this day hand over the bodies of the prisoners who were executed in 2012 for decent burial by their families who would also need that to bring closure to their sad ordeal.  The man is a Terrorist and has no morals.

To add insult to injury, Jammeh decided at the last minute to organize a marathon race in Banjul on the same day (December 30) that families of the Freedom Fighters of that fateful day’s attack a year ago are mourning the dead.  He asked the various Security units to compete for various prizes.  According to our sources, the Army took the first prize: D1,000,000 ($25,000), while individual prizes of D13,000 ($325) and D10,000 ($250) went to first and second places respectively.   This was his way of mocking and taunting the families in what he considers the victor’s justice – The Gambia is surely doomed.

What makes this latest irresponsible act of callousness even more bizarre is the fact that while he is dishing out all these cash prizes to the soldiers, the salary obligations to those very security personnel have been recently difficult to meet.  That problem is so acute that the Military Finance department had to take a loan from the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) to be able to pay the soldiers.  The State House is also bankrupt according to Fatu Radio sources there.  But then again, all this is expected of a man who metes out all sorts of abuses on those very soldiers, including beating them with cables, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, killings, working as slave labor at his farms and businesses, and all other forms of abuses.  Considering that Yahya cannot physically on a one to one basis beat any of these soldiers, one is left with no choice but to wonder what is going on in the minds of the current crop of soldiers in that country.

We find comfort in the fact that the Diaspora, with the leadership of Tukulor Sey, Oumie Andrews and Ndey Jobarteh, gave a fitting tribute to those men who put their lives on the line for Gambians on December 30 resulting to the death of Lamin Sanneh, Njaga Jagne, and Alagie Jaja Nyass.  We commend them for a job well done.  We shall never forget!

The issue of policing has been and continues to be – even if mostly contentious, a matter of national dialogue and concern in every country where there exists even a small semblance of rule of law.  Since Gambia doesn’t fall into that category for obvious reasons – there is a total breakdown in rule of law and even a semblance of justice is nonexistent, it will be foolhardy of us to expect such.

So when sources on the ground alerted Fatu Radio to current methods being used by the feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA), it didn’t surprise us that they sound similar to those used by the NAZI police called Gestapo in Germany in the 1940s.  What is so troubling about one particular style is how it is being utilized – all in the name of “national security”.  The idea of presumption of innocence is enshrined in all constitutions in every decent country in the world.  As part of that concept, the fact that you therefore have to have probable cause to launch an investigation in anyone’s actions, is also codified into all those laws to be sure abuse of the citizenry doesn’t become common place.  The system in The Gambia is totally devoid of these two concepts, hence the reason why even private citizens using state machinery to settle personal scores have become common place.  The point here is; why should security forces be recording even casual conversations of people who are not under any investigation or suspected of committing any crime?  Terrorizing the citizens is the only thing that comes to mind.  This is nothing short of a “fishing expedition”.

Members of Gambia’s security forces especially the NIA have now been given flash drives that have inbuilt recording devices in them.  This equipment was just recently supplied to them and a lot more are being ordered.  So what looks like a casual wearing of a key chain with different gadgets on it could turn out to be a dangerous ploy to implicate innocent citizens for crimes they didn’t even intend to commit, let alone execute.  Election season is upon us and Dictator Yahya Jammeh figured the good old intimidation tac-tic cannot wait any longer.

When Faturadio contacted Gambia observers to comment on this, one of them raised the issue of courts continuing to remain oblivious to these evidence fabrication schemes.  “In light of these revelations, why are these mercenary judges continuing to make any evidence from the NIA admissible in those courts”, he rhetorically said with indignation.  Another questions why private citizens and political parties are not taking issue with these tac-tics and playing into Jammeh’s hands by respecting any decisions from the courts, especially when no due process is followed from the beginning of an investigation to the time of being taken to court and finally being sentenced.  “The process is so tainted, no citizens in any country in the world who take their rights seriously will allow any decision from it to stand” she concluded.

Faturadio will continue to monitor this new development.  We are hoping the citizens will not be intimidated no matter the Gestapo style tac-tic employed by the regime.

Alhaji Ceesay and Ebou Jobe left the comforts of their successful American dreams to go set up a Computer company in their homeland, The Gambia.  Unbeknownst to them, the environment that they left behind when they came to America to pursue higher education is far removed from the one that obtains when they decided to go back and participate in “national development”.

The Gambia by then had become toxic beyond repair – the state machinery is often used to settle personal scores and grudges, the Dictator running the country, Yahya Jammeh had encouraged a type of division never seen before, people get killed or tortured over the flimsiest reasons, disappearances had become a norm.

So when these St. Augustine’s High alums decided to cash their bank accounts, retirement accounts, and stocks to answer Yahya Jammeh’s call for nation building, they didn’t realize they were making a fatal error.  They kissed their wives and kids a goodbye and boarded planes bound for Senegal, from where they proceeded to Banjul.  Loaded with a lot of U.S dollars, they wasted no time in renting a nice apartment in an exclusive part of town and settling down to put their idea to work.

Growing up, Alhaji and Ebou were raised in a Gambia where people were trustworthy, one could have confidence in a gentleman’s agreement and handshake, people generally left their doors wide open throughout the day without any fear of break-ins, it was common for people to return money found on the streets to the rightful owner.  They were naïve to think that was still the case when they returned, so were never suspicious when strange individuals walked around their neighborhood looking for any clues as to what they brought from the United States with them.

Information has been scanty as to how these two ended up at the feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA), but they somehow did.  There has been information that the dollars that they brought attracted unwanted attention on them from a regime that wastes no time in conning innocent businessmen and even private individuals out of their hard earned money.  This place, according to an unimpeachable source, was where the Junglers (Yahya Jammeh’s illegal security group known for its vicious brutality and killings of innocent people) picked them up in the middle of the night.  Specifically, Sanna Manjang and Nuha Badjie were the two that came for them.  They said they got directives from Yahya to transfer Alhaji and Ebou to the Maximum Security Wing of the Mile2 Prisons.  Sanna and Nuha directed the driver to go towards Cape Point Junction by Sting Corner, from where they headed for Jeshwang.

What happened next has been the subject of speculation.  Some believe they are still alive and being transferred from jail to jail, but some say they are killed and buried in one of the graves in the greater Banjul area.  But what we can confirm, contrary to what Yahya Jammeh has been telling the world, is his regime definitely has these two.  They should be decent enough to give answers to Alhaji and Ebou’s families as to what happened to them, or hand them back if they are still alive since they haven’t been charged with any crime.

“This is going to be your last breath,” they told Imam Baba Leigh as they threw earth over his bound body. Then they stopped and laughed. It was a mock execution, one of many tortures the Muslim cleric told Amnesty International he endured during his months in captivity.

His crime? Criticizing the president.

Welcome to the Gambia, home to one of the most vicious and bizarre dictatorships in the world. Since taking power in a 1994 coup, President Yahya Jammeh has ruled Africa’s smallest mainland country through fear, force and what we can best describe as creepiness. He prefers that subjects address him by his full name — His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh — and says he can cure AIDS. The 49-year-old also imprisons people for alleged witchcraft and has threatened to decapitate all homosexuals, because they are “anti-God and anti-human.” Oh, and there’s his penchant for firing live rounds into crowds of peaceful demonstrators. Anyone who speaks up against his cruel, outlandish ways risks kidnapping, torture or murder, like Imam Leigh.

In all this, Jammeh has made his country the neighborhood freak. The rest of West Africa has taken big strides toward democracy over the past decade, what with the election of the first female African president in Liberia and Ghana’s status as rule-of-law beacon. Yet the Gambia, 50 years independent, is where human rights go to die. In 2013, it up and left the Commonwealth, a 54-nation grouping of former British colonies, suggesting to diplomats that Jammeh refused to tolerate any international criticism (he’d gotten a spate of it the previous year for resurrecting the firing squad).

Perhaps inevitably, attempts to topple Jammeh’s regime also take on a certain degree of bizarreness. The latest, in December 2014, was led by two Gambian-Americans with some military training, according to an FBI affidavit. In August, the men bought weapons (including eight semi-automatic rifles) in the U.S., disassembled them, swaddled them in used clothing and stuffed the whole thing into 50-gallon barrels that were shipped via container to the Gambia. In early December, the men arrived in the country, rented cars and drove them into the front and back of Jammeh’s palace. They figured Jammeh’s guards would flee — being unwilling to die for the dictator — but, oh, they were wrong. (The U.S. has charged the men under the Neutrality Act, which bars Americans from taking part in private military actions against “friendly nations.”)

Absent a coup or burst of energy from the global community, 2016 will likely see Jammeh re-elected with a fraudulent majority.

Indeed, though Jammeh is feared, he appears to have the genuine admiration of many of his citizens and some of the oblivious tourists who visit the beautiful country dubbed the “Smiling Coast of Africa.” For some 50,000 Britons each year, the Gambia remains a holiday destination — Jammeh keeps it safe, plus it’s a six-hour flight from Heathrow and a hell of a lot cheaper than Marbella. Tourism and peanut exports are helping the tiny state’s economy grow at a rate of6.3 percent.y Downing/Corbis

And even as most residents are poor, Jammeh scores well in the health department. Unlike its West African neighbors, the Gambia has avoided the Ebola epidemic, and its child mortality and maternal death rates are lower thanthe regional average. The country also has achieved one of Africa’s highest vaccination rates, “which should certainly be applauded,” says Jeffrey Smith, advocacy officer at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

To be sure, validating these claims is hard without a free press. In 2004, reporter Deyda Hydara was mysteriously gunned down after criticizing Jammeh’s regime. The president’s tight grip on the media also allows him to indulge his penchant for self-promotion. The newspapers report various honors: Jammeh being named the Pride and Champion of African Democracy, for instance, or his winning from President Barack Obama a “Platinum Award.” Neither exists outside Jammeh’s nightmare-scape.

Obama did shake hands with him once — which Jammeh likes to use as evidence of the leaders’ closeness. And the U.S. hasn’t much pressured the regime: It has charged those coup perpetrators, after all, under the auspices of the Gambia being a “friendly nation,” and has stomached the alleged kidnapping of two American citizens, in 2013, by Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency. (Their whereabouts remain unknown.) Sometimes the U.S. issues outraged statements. But “if we can’t do anything about this isolated country with no economic ties to us, where will we? He’s the lowest hanging fruit,” says Smith.

For now, Jammeh continues to act with impunity. Absent a successful coup or some burst of energy from the international community, the 2016 election will likely see Jammeh re-elected with a vast, fraudulent majority — just like the last election, and the one before that, and the one before that. In the meantime, human rights advocates say that Jammeh’s grip has tightened since December’s foiled coup. Some 30 family members and acquaintances of the coup leaders have been detained without charges, some of them as young as 14, and François Patuel, a campaigner at Amnesty International, says the organization worries that “repression will intensify.”

Last year in the Gambia, a bit of hope appeared when members of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council were allowed into the country to investigate. Alas, they were forbidden to enter its detention centers. As Patuel puts it, “With Jammeh, it’s always one step forward, three steps back.”

The Daily Global Watch, an international newspaper is reporting that senior security officials have been arrested In The Gambia and supposedly put under house arrest. The most prominent so far named is General Saul Badjie, a close ally of President Yahya Jammeh. It has to be noted that since last week The Fatu Radio has been inundated with different kinds of information from people claiming to be within the State House who have been reporting about Saul Badgie’s arrest and or disappearance.

Just this morning, Sunday, December 27, 2015, one of our trusted sources has sent us a disturbing note pleading with The Fatu Radio to mount an urgent inquiry on the whereabouts of General Saul Badjie, whom he said has not been seen throughout the festive period neither at The State nor at any of his usual places. The source said this is highly suspect and is causing a lot of rumors and panic even among the soldiers at The State House. Meanwhile, The Fatu Radio is working hard to confirm the veracity of this latest information on the arrest of security chiefs in The Gambia including Gen. Saul Badjie. Below is the link to the story by The Daily Global Watch.

http://dailyglobewatch.com/index.php?url=2015/12/breaking-general-saul-badjie-placed-under.html

Satang Njie, a 26 years old, left her home country, The Gambia last year with nothing but a promise of a human trafficker that once she arrives in Lebanon, all her dreams of securing success so she can take her poor mother out of poverty will become a reality.  She paid D10,000 ($250) to one Edrissa Jarju of Kololi Tavern, the agent who recruited her for what was described to her as a “dream job” overseas.  It will turn out to be a decision she would not live to regret.  She hailed from Bwiam, West Coast Region where her family still resides.

Upon her arrival in Lebanon, Satang was shocked to find out that she was instead being sent into a life of servitude and abuse, left to the mercy of her patron called “Madame”.  The Madame seized her passport and confiscated all her relevant documents right away, with a strict warning that she should never ask for them unless she is able to come up with $3,000.  The salary of a maid in Lebanon is $150, an amount that can barely meet one’s monthly needs let alone according the individual a surplus to send back home to help poor parents.

Despite her disappointments and harsh working conditions (working mostly from 5AM to 1AM, 7 days a week), she kept a positive outlook on life and even described by roommates and friends as jovial, happy, and always very friendly.  She took all her suffering and bad luck in strides, always inspiring the other girls in similar conditions – they were all victims of the same human trafficking scheme.

Oddly enough, just a week prior to her death, Satang began to exhibit signs of extreme sadness – not intermingling like before, little mood for the usual jovial chit-chats characteristic of her, and going straight to bed once she arrives from her long day at work, even sleeping with her body facing the wall unlike before.  When a roommate enquired, she confided in her that her mother back in The Gambia is very sick and she doesn’t have the means to help the poor mom.  She had by this time quit her job with the Madame, leaving her documents there since she couldn’t come up with the $3,000 bailout money, and taken up a part time job (working time runs from the afternoon to midnight) elsewhere.

Satang left for work on Thursday, December 24, 2015 and never returned.  Her anxious roommates and friends became suspicious and worried.  They have no proper documents in this foreign country because of their illegal working arrangements, and because of this, they were scared to go to the authorities.  So when they got a phone call from a gentleman who introduced himself as a Police Officer, they were nervous about opening up since they figured her disappearance is after all a case of an immigration detention and that the rest of them could also land in the same trouble.  When the Officer realized that the girls were unwilling to meet him at a designated place “to discuss a matter relating to Satang”, he was forced to break the sad news to them on the phone that Satang was hit by several cars a night before and died.  It turned out; she was hit as she crossed a busy highway on her way home the early hours of Friday, December 25, 2015, the drivers didn’t even bother to stop.  The Police traced the roommates using contacts in Satang’s mobile phone.

Satang’s death marks yet another escalation in this tragic story of the thousands of dreams dashed – Gambian youths perishing either on their way to escape the harsh conditions of human rights abuses and near zero economic benefits in Gambia to try their chances abroad, or dying cruel deaths in these foreign countries that agent recruiters promise they will find gold and diamond only for them to find out too late that they were victims of human trafficking.  Gambia has already made name for itself as a major human trafficking hub – securing a catastrophic Tier 3 (worst level) ranking on the index according to U.S Department of State 2015 Trafficking in Person Report.

Meanwhile, her friends in Lebanon have contacted Satang’s parents in Bwiam and shared the sad news with them.  Another Gambian woman residing in Lebanon who goes by the name Catherine is helping the distraught roommates in making arrangements for Satang’s body, which is currently at the hospital.  Catherine, who has lived in Lebanon for 20 years, has told Fatu Radio that she is waiting on Satang’s dad’s nod as to whether to send the body back to The Gambia or bury her in Lebanon.  It is also worth noting that when the roommates contacted the Gambia based human trafficker’s (Satang’s recruiter) agent in Lebanon for help, they were told he cannot help and has no responsibility to do so.

The devastation of Human Trafficking was the subject of a story on Faturadio a couple of weeks ago.  That story highlighted the ordeal being faced by Gambian girls in Kuwait also brought to that country by human traffickers with the false promises of securing good jobs and making a lot of money, only to find themselves in a web of abuse.  We will be focusing on these stories more in order to sensitize our youths about the dangers of these evil scheme.

Sadly, for Satang, any redress is too little too late, and that is an indictment of all of us, including the United States, European Union, United Nations, ECOWAS, African Union, and the rest of the International community.

A disturbing news just arrived at the Faturadio news desk that, if true, will point to a very dangerous development in the state of affairs in The Gambia.  A group in town calling itself Boko Haram has on Thursday, December 17, 2015 committed a gruesome murder in Serekunda that has left even the Police who have over the years seen some of the worst crimes in the African continent because of the high level of poverty and destitution – thanks to President Yahya Jammeh’s reckless style of ruling, shocked and bewildered.  Jammeh recently declared Gambia an Islamic State in a move that left the Gambians and International community dumbfounded.

According the distraught source, five young boys who hail from Faji Kunda, Nema, Abuko, and Tallinding stabbed another young boy called Chaan from Wellingara to death and later went around town bragging about it wearing their blood socked clothes to show as evidence of their action to the public.  They are all underage – most of them in Grade 9.  One of the alleged attackers named Muhammed was said to have been surrendered by his father to the Police.  This, after coming home with a bloodied shirt and telling his brother in the local language they had just killed someone that day.  The father overheard the conversation and came to enquire.

To his amazement, the son looked like a butcher from an abattoir.  He dragged him to the Police Station right away where the son is helping with investigations into the matter.  Four of the five have all been apprehended, the alleged leader of the group is still at large and being hunted by law enforcement as we speak.  The case has been moved from Bundung Police Station where it was originally brought, to Serious Crime Unit.

The murdered was trying to defend a friend who was at the time being accosted according to our source.  Faturadio is still trying to determine if these kids have actually any connection to Boko Haram in Nigeria or just inspired by the brazen acts of violence against innocent civilians by that group.  The latter is a more likely scenario.  Either way, this will constitute a very troubling development since Yahya Jammeh’s turning Gambia into an Islamic State announcement.  Before that declaration, numerous complaints have been brought to Faturadio with people expressing fear regarding the rise of radical Islam in that country.

The Talibes (students) or Marrkash as they call them in the Gambia have been raising eyebrows in the country for a while now.  Stories after stories detail how random acts of violence on the streets against especially women deemed by them to be wearing clothes that are not acceptable in Islam have been arriving at our news desk for some time now.

They have also been having escalating tensions with local mosque committees because they have been insisting that those mosques are not practicing true Islam.  It should be noted that this same Boko Haram group did make their presence in the country known last year causing a lot of fear at the time but those fears subsided when nothing was heard of them after that.  So their coming out after Jammeh’s declaration confirms the concerns raised by Gambians and the International community that Gambia could now be a hotbed of the kinds of terrorist acts that have become all too familiar to Nigerians, Malians, and others.  Senegal recently had to ban the Burqa due to concerns over terrorism.

The killed young boy is the only son of his mother who is a food vendor according to our source.   This is a developing story; we will be keenly following it.