Commentary

Halifa Sallah’s Arrest & Detention

By Samsudeen Sarr

It’s over a week now since the horrible assassination of President Nino Vieira of Guinea Bissau, a subject I said I would discuss in my next paper. However, I will postpone it for now and take this opportunity to briefly comment on the arrest and detention of Mr. Halifa Sallah for his activities against the so-called-witch-hunting program.

I guess that Halifa was merely asking a rhetorical question when he demanded clarification from the government as to whether they had something to do with the witch hunt or not, given that the hunters were accompanied everywhere by government military personnel.

At the time Halifa started to get involved because of what was reported to have originated from affected family members desperately seeking his help, I understand that the hunters had already hit some Fonis villages hard, including Kanilai, President Jammeh’s birthplace. This was why I ruled out the initial allegation that they were hounding localities of non-Jola tribes, which would have been a recipe for potential ethnic conflict. They were also reported to have visited government offices and security establishments to confiscate jujus, where Sergeant Kumba Jatta (again a Jola by his last name) was embarrassingly stripped of all his amulets. As a result, it was obvious that the government was absolutely behind the program; it is inconceivable for the boldest lunatic to independently undertake such actions in the country on Jammeh’s watch. Plus despite my pessimism in the Gambian’s character to resist government abuse, I think the villagers would have this time stiffly challenged their abusers if soldiers were not present to bully and intimidate them. 

In any case, I heard that Mr. Sallah had gone, on behalf of the Foroyya newspaper, to investigate the case of a villager or two who had been among several abducted “witches” forced to drink the hallucinogens, which appeared to have contributed to their death. By confirming and reporting such incident, the Foroyya paper would have exposed the first evidence of a capital crime committed by these scum. That of course would have also made the Jammeh government clearly culpable in the crime. Gambians in general know that the president is directly behind the whole exercise. And thanks to the Foroyaa newspaper their attempts to keep the illegal activities secret in the country have failed.

In Omar Jallow’s (OJ) interview with the Freedom-online paper, he lamented over the reluctance of the independent press at home including the Point newspaper to publish his opinions on the issue. But with Pap Saine still trying to wriggle out of the litany of crazy charges brought against him for publishing an accurate story, I perfectly understand his decision to play it cautious. One must not forget that his partner, Deyda Hydara was brutally murdered in mysterious circumstances still unresolved. 

I am however inclined to believe that if Jammeh was not up to something more sinister than what is projected, and was sincerely convinced that the witch hunters were out to help rather than harm the public, he would have ordered his TV station to film every detail of their rituals in the same way his aids-curing gimmick was covered in the past. He also would not have restricted the hunting activities to smaller villages with people of lower literacy level and less sophisticated lifestyles- no harm meant please! Jambur, Essau, Sintet, Gunjur Berending and the like are comparatively underdeveloped villages inhabited by people who are mainly under informed about the realities of the modern world including their basic civil and human rights. That’s why I still don’t think the hunters will venture into compounds in Serekunda, Banjul, Bakau and the like and force innocent residents to board unmarked vehicles to be transported to unknown destinations, even if accompanied by the fiercest bazooka wielding soldiers. I am positive that the people in these cities and towns will never succumb to such nonsense about even dignifying the existence of witches much more allow these lunatics to take their parents away for the darn rituals.  

But I must admit being really encouraged by the Foroyaa team for remaining both defiant and resilient on their publication against the backdrop of the state’s shameless intimidating tactics. To hear Mr. Ousainou Darbo and OJ add their voices of condemnation to the abuse of judicial power in Sallah’s bail conditions was reassuring and deserve every commendation. It was however well over due for prominent Gambians to emphatically denounce this primitive belief in the existence of witches. Special kudos therefore goes to OJ for sounding like the maverick he has always been.

I know how people from his locality have long since been awoken from the deception surrounding the myth. Religious leaders would have better served their worth by stepping up to the plate in their Godly duty to intervene positively in these baffling times. The existence of witches in the way we think they do in The Gambia does not have any place in Islam or Christianity. Yet these are the two main religions Gambians practice. If we want to entertain the notion that witches, as we believe they really are, exist, then we might as well encourage anybody to hunt them in every way possible, not exempting Jammeh’s approach. It’s only by first recognizing its absurdity that one may gain headway to logically stop the madness behind it. I keep on repeating the clause “witches as we believe they are” to differentiate that of those in The Gambia from those perceived globally, particularly in western societies. This morning, May 18, 2009, I heard the BBC in London discussing the witch hunt controversy in The Gambia and described it as, “witchcraft in Africa”, a common practice among most Africans who believe in the craft used, sometimes, to help the unemployed get jobs, fix their special problems, etcetera. On its demerit, they also referred to those who use it to cast spells of bad luck on unsuspecting victims. So throughout the two-minute discussion on what has been happening in The Gambia, the matter was treated like a case of people practicing their beliefs only to be persecuted by the government for harassment. Even the recent death of President Jammeh’s Aunt, which they said was believed to have been caused by a witch’s spell, was quoted for warranting his anger against the local practitioners. That’s definitely not how witches are perceived in The Gambia. It sounded like a subject on “marabouts” which Jammeh believes he is one of the best in the continent. The witches Gambians believe to exist are special human-flesh-consuming demons whose whole preoccupation is to discreetly transform themselves at night into fearsome flying animals, congregating in Sabbaths for feasts on their victims. They are the same witches my Ghanaian friend once told me had their own Boeing for international festivals. So the BBC got it all wrong in treating it as a common practice acceptable to a large extent.

Still, Halifa and his family must during these trying times be accorded all the necessary support they deserve regardless of the consequences of anticipated trial. As long as his colleagues will pick up the campaign from where he had left off and not retreat awaiting his release, as if his efforts were individually motivated, then the chances of making a difference will become greater. Of course, that may cause another second arrest, or even a third or fourth one, depending upon how far the group might wish to go for the attainment of their objective. In my book, anything short of a successive chain of command in any operation conducted by a group will fail in the face of a determined counter-operation. It is entirely possible that the arrest and detention of Halifa was purposely aimed at discouraging or stopping Foroyaa, the only national newspaper reporting on the witch-hunt activities, from doing so anymore. So, hurray to Sam Sarr and Sedia Jatta for refusing to give in.

One must factor in what will happen if Jammeh’s judges and prosecutors try and send Halifa to jail for a long period? We already know that pursuing a legal system for the dispensation of justice where the judiciary is in bed with the executive is merely a waste of time.   We have seen what happened in numerous cases of this nature in the past where political figures are tried in kangaroo courts and sentenced to jail on baseless charges.

At last, I believe this is my chance to say it finally; I strongly believe that taking one’s eye off the ball or not acting together on a common pursuit, had a lot to do with what finally broke Mr. Lamin Waa Juwara’s resilience, whom I still give credit for being one of the toughest challengers of Jammeh on the ground since the coup. In all honesty, Mr. Juwara suffered more arrests, torture, incarcerations and abuses for challenging the Jammeh government longer than any politician I know of in the country. One night in the early days of the coup, he narrowly escaped being abducted by some of the most notorious assassins in the system. Yet, throughout his entire traumatic ordeal, not a very serious stand or impressive follow-up was made by his party members to show that his efforts were collectively motivated towards a common political goal. In fact, he was often criticized for being extremely militant, as if there was a better civil alternative. For all I know, Mr. Juwara has been locked up in every prison in the country, from Janjanburay to Mile Two Central Prisons, with nothing progressive to show for his “fight-for-the people” other than scars from brutal torture. So, when he decided to change his approach, I did not find it treacherous as such, but believed that he took a perfectly normal decision before he ended up like those who lost their lives in the struggle with nothing significant achieved. I mean no offense to those who share a different opinion about his character.

Another classic example was just before the last general elections, when Mr. Omar Jallow OJ (PPP), Mr. Hamat Bah (NRP) and Mr. Halifa Sallah (PDOI) were suddenly whisked to Mile Two Prisons on strange charges of treason, which were never clearly explained to the public.  The new NADD party had only just been inaugurated at the time. Nonetheless it took the intervention, not of party members who I can say acted as if it was not their serious concern, but of a Head of State, the then sitting president of Nigeria, General Obasanjo (Rtd.), to secure their release after over a month in confinement. Would it have surprised anyone if, having gained their freedom, the detained leaders gave up “fighting for Gambians”?  I hoped not.

For success this time Sallah must not be allowed to be a mere sacrificial lamb.

I would in my conclusion like to ask a legal luminary to help me with one more question about how bail conditions are set in The Gambia. Are they discretionary for the judges and magistrates handling the cases or do they draw the conditions from guidelines in law books? Because to demand as a condition that Mr. Sallah could only be bailed out by certain retired senior service personnel whom I doubt even exist in the country, is mind-boggling.

I will once reiterate the plea I made to President Jammeh in my last piece which is, please President Jammeh, SABARRY and let both Halifa Sallah and Pap Saine go free for they mean no harm to any Gambian.

My next piece will be on the late Vieira, Manneh, Verissimo and Waie. I met the four slain leaders at the height of their civil war in 1998. It shocks me to see them go the way they did.