Six Senior US Senators tell Jammeh to immediately release Chief Manneh

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

In an unprecedented level of Congressional outrage over the disappearance of Gambian journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, six senior United States Senators today, sent out a strongly worded letter of condemnation to Gambia’s retromingent Head of State, Yahya Jammeh asking him to immediately release the missing journalist. The six Senators are Illinois’ Senior Senator and Assistant Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin, Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, Senator Robert Casey, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Patty Murray, Senate Appropriations Committee, Former vice presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senator Ted Kennedy also, of the Senate Armed Services committee.

This welcome development, a sequel to an earlier appeal for Manneh’s unconditional release by Senator Richard (Dick) Durbin in the Senate floor last year, comes in the wake mounting pressure on the authoritarian regime coupled with deepening isolation of The Gambia by western democracies all of whom are now convinced that indeed, Yahya Jammeh’s exit is long over due.

In the terse statement to dictator Jammeh, the Senators expressed outrage at both the Gambian Embassy in Washington as well as Yahya Jammeh’s shameful silence over the missing journalist. “We are deeply troubled that repeated requests to your Embassy in Washington and you directly regarding Mr. Manneh have been met with silence” they told Yahya Jammeh.

The Senator’s petition alluded to different instances of the Jammeh government’s belligerence in the Manneh matter and ended up with a damning verdict, “the conflicting information and lack of responsiveness further the perception of a disturbing deterioration of human rights in The Gambia particularly to press freedom,” they told the Gambian dictator. Below is the letter in its entirety: