The Verdict
Another April 10th Anniversary; Still No Justice In Sight
By Adama Hawa
It has been eight long years since the Gambian security forces opened fire and killed more than 14 innocent Gambian school children, whose only crime was to peacefully demonstrate against certain grievances they had against the regime.
However, it seems as if the event happened yesterday as it is still fresh in the minds of most Gambians, especially, those who lost their loved ones.
Certainly, the memories of those little souls will never fade away from the hearts and minds of those who care about humanity and the injustice that was meted out to those innocent children.
Soldiers of The Gambia National Army slew Journalist Omar Barrow on bloody April
The only way the injustice can be mitigated is for those who perpetrated the crime to be brought to justice and punished for their crime against the people, which this regime does not ever intend to do.
We can all vividly recall the morning of 10 April 2000 when students in the Greater Banjul Area, under the leadership of the Gambia Students Union (GAMSU) decided to stage a peaceful demonstration against a host of grievances, including the killing of their colleague, Ebrima Barry by officials of the Brikama Fire Brigade as well as the raping of a girl student by a member of the security forces. Despite giving enough notice to the authorities about their intention to hold a peaceful procession to vent out their grievances, the authorities ordered the security forces to use brutality, including live bullets to prevent the demonstration, leading to the deaths of more than 14 young people and maiming for life of several others.
Apart from the unprovoked shooting to death of the innocent students in the Greater Banjul Area on the 10th April, the security forces went ahead to repeat that same brutality the following day in Brikamaba and other parts of the country, killing more children. Some of those who escaped deaths were subjected to untold brutality in the hands of the security forces, resulting in some of them being maimed for the rest of their lives.
And yet, the government has done virtually nothing to assist their families to take care of them. They are instead abandoned to their fate and their families have no choice but to continue to take care of them with their meagre resources, and with no input from those who gave orders to the security forces to open fire with live bullets, and went on television to tell blatant lies about it.
However, instead of ensuring that justice was done in order to ameliorate the suffering of the affected families, the government decided to instead indemnify all those who were found culpable of unleashing such violence on innocent Gambian children. That was indeed enough indication that this government had no regrets about what happened and they would not hesitate to do it all over again against anyone who challenges their hegemony.
The government did not only stop at indemnifying the perpetrators of the unprecedented violence against the children, but they also went ahead to launch a systematic programme to annihilate GAMSU by creating their own surrogate student body, the National Patriotic Students Association (NAPSA), using money and other incentives, and even coercion to entice students to become members of that puppet body, eventually making it the only legal student body in the country, enjoying unlimited financial and moral support from the authorities.
The authorities succeeded in transforming the members of NAPSA into puppets and praise singers, who would do anything, even to the extent of going to render slave labour on President Jammeh’s farms in Kanilai, in order to get crumps and other privileges from him. It is indeed a shame that those students have so quickly forgotten the brutality meted out to their colleagues a few years ago, that some of them would even go to the extent of giving President Jammeh a “Student Friendly Award”. What a shame!!?.
However, no matter how long it may take, those responsible for the perpetration of such violence against innocent Gambian children will one day be brought to justice.