By: Dawda Baldeh
In a letter addressed to the Ministry of Health and the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), National Human Right Commission (NHRC) has kicked against the proposed mass burial of unidentified corpses at the morgue of EFSTH, the country’s main mortuary.
This comes after the hospital proposed a mass burial of unidentified corpses kept at its mortuary. The date for the mass burial of the said corpses was not specified.
The National Human Right Commission drew the attention of the hospital’s management to allegations of enforced disappearances and missing persons mentioned in the TRRC Report and the subsequent Government White Paper.
“The problem is that there are still missing persons (enforced disappearance) during the time of former President Yahya Jammeh. May be some of these unidentified bodies are victims of the killings of Jammeh,” NHRC mentioned in its letter.
“The State, as the primary duty bearer, is under obligation to protect the right to life, including, ensuring that all unlawful, sudden and unnatural death cases are thoroughly investigated and documented before dead bodies are buried.”
The Commission recommended for legal, medical and scientific protocols to be exhausted before the dead bodies are buried.
It further recommended for the keeping and maintaining of proper records of all unidentified dead bodies for future references and invite the public for viewing and identification of the bodies before burial.
NHRC noted that public announcements for viewing, identification and burial should be made in major local languages across the country.
The Commission also recommended for documentation and safe keeping of details and circumstances of how each body was deposited at the mortuary.
NHRC added that burials should comply with human dignity, values and norms of the wider Gambia society by ensuring that dead bodies are buried separately in marked graves, and not in a mass grave as proposed by the hospital.
It further stated that the records of each dead body and each marked grave be kept just in case the bodies are needed for future forensic and scientific identification and exhumation.
