By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor
Manneh &Fofana
It has become an all too familiar story; arrest and detention of innocent Gambians without cause, followed by detention beyond the legal limit, then the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and finally the months turn into years. Today, The Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and The Gambian Judiciary have become the most repressive government agencies in existence in the West African region, and this has turned our country into an inhospitable hell hole for so many of our citizens. As many Gambians flee to seek refuge and sanctuary in countries near and far, so many others are not so lucky. For many of those who remain home, life is like a chess game that one must play, and play well and play deceptively in order to survive the gruesome statistics of Yahya Jammeh’s torture and killing machine. The onslaught that the government of Yahya Jammeh has unleashed on our citizens has become the primary preoccupation defining every action of this cruel regime. And now, like so many others who have simply vanished from the face of this earth before them, the fates of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh and Kudang schoolteacher Tamba Fofana remain a mystery. Both men were arrested nearly a year ago, and some months ago, one was spotted in a jail nearly four hundred miles from his place of arrest. Since then, their trails have gone cold, and the two have never been brought before any judicial officer for a hearing of any sort, nor have they been charged with any crime, in violation of the 72 hours detention before a charge or bail hearing law. Since Mr. Manneh was reportedly last seen in a Fatoto jail, the NIA has provided no answer to his family members as to where he is being held. Similarly, schoolteacher Tamba Fofana has not been seen since he was arrested nearly a year ago, yet the regime does not feel obligated to provide answers to his family members. It can be recalled that this government has on occasions defied court orders demanding the release from jail and custody of persons the court had exonerated from any wrong doing. The public demands to know where Ebrima Manneh and Tamba Fofana are being detained incommunicado.
Rambo & Kanyiba
But, as if that was not enough, authorities are today denying any knowledge of the whereabouts of two more Gambians arrested several months ago. The whereabouts of Rambo Jatta and Kanyiba Kanyi cannot be ascertained, as police remain adamant that they have no knowledge of their place of detention and the NIA is not forthcoming with any information either. The arrest, detention and denials of any knowledge of the whereabouts of citizens previously under the custody of the authorities, is a familiar refrain that the government has engaged in for the past decade. Rambo Jatta a staunch and fearless opponent of this murderous and illegitimate regime has been a target of the NIA and Jammeh’s other clandestine civilian machineries of repression for the past twelve years. He has had a long history of being arrested and detained for preposterous reasons only to be released; yet this pattern of intimidation has never dimmed his propensity to dissent against Jammeh’s evil regime. To cast more light on this regime’s hysteria, it is nearly two years since Daba Marenah and several younger officers of the military and security forces were arrested in connection with an alleged coup, but the men have never been seen or heard from again. The authorities at the time reported that the men had escaped after the vehicle they were in crashed; yet the government could not provide any evidence to prove an escape ever occurred. This left more questions than answers. Where did this supposed crash happen? Where is the vehicle that was involved in the crash? Who were the security escorts of these prisoners? But, since then, the media has been reliably informed that the men were summarily executed by the Jammeh regime and buried in a forest or fed to the sharks. For the past twelve years, many more military and security officers, as well as ordinary civilians such as my former house boss at Yundum college, Foday Makalo, have simply vanished after being arrested by Yahya Jammeh’s official thugs, the NIA or the unofficial thugs, the feared Chiakas. How many others have vanished that we do not know of? It is now reliably learnt that Jammeh has a parallel army of trained men different from our national army as a counter weight to our army in case there is an attempt to remove him again. Jammeh can live in his make belief world, but when the time comes, nothing will stop him from vacating our State House. For now, we demand that our courts force the authorities to produce Ebrima Manneh, Tamba Fofana, Rambo Jatta and Kanyiba Kanyi and any one else under the custody of the regime. Time and time again, over the past twelve years, the government has chosen what laws to obey and which ones to ignore. Like every other citizen, our laws must be binding to the regime whether the law is favorable to it or not. The case releasing Maimuna Taal of economic crimes is an example that the judiciary can replicate over and over again in every other civil and criminal case in which this regime has a political interest. This government has lost the credibility to try any one for anything, because from economic crimes to simple battery, this regime, this thug Yahya Jammeh, has been the worst offender our country has ever known. No citizen should have the luxury of choosing which laws to obey or not obey, and neither should this corrupt, rat-infested and infinitely cruel regime of Yahya Jammeh. Like Manneh and Fofana, Gambians want and demand to know where Rambo Jatta and Kanyiba Kanyi are being held.
Fatou Jaw-Manneh
The recent correspondences to Professor Saine from the U.S Ambassador to The Gambia, and the Director of the Human Rights Division at the State Department, on the ongoing frivolous Fatou Jaw-Manneh
sedition case, is a welcome reactions to the gross abuses of human and civil rights in The Gambia. Yahya Jammeh has clearly turned himself into a monster, and the result is that today; no civil and human right can be taken for granted. We have lost so much ground in the area of human and civil rights, that most of us would give our souls to have a government like Jawara’s again. This is the depth to which we as a country have sunk. As Fatou Jaw-Manneh is being paraded into a kangaroo court, the regime’s greater objective is to set and example as a way to intimidate and instill fear in potential critics of this mafia outfit that passes itself as a government. However, the recent court deliberation that found Maimuna Taal not guilty of any crime, offers us a glimmer of hope that there may still be a few decent judges and magistrates out there ready and willing to do the right thing. We hope magistrate Buba Jawo will not succumb to the pressures and seemingly benign and subtle intimidation emanating from State House. Any fair trial will acquit Fatou Jaw-Manneh, and consequently see this case for what it is. This is just another case where the state is abusing the use of our court system as yet another layer repression of both the media and the civilian population. What makes these cases all the more worrisome is that the Higher Court lacks the nerve to stop the regime from abusing our courts. Meanwhile, inadvertently or otherwise, our judicial system exists primarily as an instrument of repression for this criminal regime, and as our judges play along, our people are suffering and their nightmares will linger on for many decades to come.
Sana Sabally
While a lot of the reaction to my pieces on the Sana Sabally case was civil and mature, I feel the instances where we agree are more important than where we do not. In this particular instance, Sam Sarr’s reaction makes it clear that we can disagree without being overly confrontational and hostile. I would like to remind Mr. Sarr that between him and Mr. Sabally, he (Sarr) is the machudo who should be doing Sabally’s bidding. Seriously, all jokes aside, Mr. Sarr misinterpreted my reference of “deal with it” as referring to the ordeals he, Chongan and others may have suffered while in detention. Nothing is farther from the truth. My reference to “deal with it” was another way of saying that what Sana was doing intimidating people to come to work on time was the right thing to do. It had nothing to do with what some of you suffered at the hands of this regime. But the most important thing for me is for us to not be distracted from our mission of getting rid of this Jammeh regime. Among those who served in the military and security forces, Binneh Minteh has been the most consistently vociferous critic of this Jammeh mafia regime, and to be fair to him, as an ex-military officer, he has motivated many others both at home and abroad. Sometime last year, Sana Sabally joined the struggle being waged by the media, and no one can deny that the depth and breath of his knowledge of the organization where he was Vice-President will shed light on the brutality of Yahya Jammeh and his cowardly collaborators. I do not condone enforcing traffic laws the way Sana did it, so I mentioned that only to make comparison to the serious crimes being perpetrated by Jammeh and his thugs. Over the past several years, we have seen and heard Sana Sabally being tied to crimes committed by this government even though Sana was already serving nine years in Mile II. These unfounded allegations are very unsetting, and printing such stories without the required and proper journalistic confirmation of the facts, is both damaging to the character of Sana and a total dereliction of journalistic responsibility. Here, I want to remind readers, that on November 11th. 1994, I wrote The Daily Observer cover story of the “aborted coup”, and I wrote asking about the whereabouts of Basiru Barrow, Dot Faal and the others who were missing, but we never got any reaction one way or the other from the government. On the Nov. 13th, I visited Basiru Barrow’s home on the Sukuta/Bakoteh border both as a reporter digging for the truth and as a relation to Mr. Barrow, the husband of one of my uncle’s daughters. Mr. Sarr, Chongan and Minteh, I want to make it clear that I empathize anyone who has suffered or is suffering under Jammeh’s brutality, and this is also extended to Sana Sabally, one who has endured nine years of cruelty at Mile II. For now, we should not try to shout anyone down, and Sana like any one out there has something to say, and he should be accorded the opportunity to say it. When we get rid of the beast, we will all make time for inquiries, questions, reparations of broken relationships and reconciliation.
Death In Serekunda London Corner
Finally, the recent killing in Serekunda London corner of a young man is eerily reminiscent of the April 2000 murder of so many students. But, that the murderer was a civilian volunteer who was moonlighting as a drug agent is inexcusable. This is yet another indictment of this government’s disregard for human life. Equally troubling is the government’s reaction that this was a suicide. Rather than feeding us the truth, the regime is feeding us the type of propaganda we see in dictatorships. It is about time all the opposition parties call the population out on the streets by their hundreds of thousands to not only protest this government, but to seek its downfall. Only a popular uprising can at this point help us get rid of Jammeh and his thugs. We know that even the population of Lamin Village alone can overwhelm the military and anything Jammeh has in his arsenal, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of residents of Brikama, Sere Kunda, Tabokoto, Fagi Kunda, Bakau, Banjul and all the other towns and villages from Brufut to Kembujeh. Moreover, I suggest the formation a coalition of dissidents speaking in one voice to launch a serious campaign to remove this government. We can operate a headquarters base in Dakar, Senegal, and from where we will launch the liberation of our homeland. After all that this government has done to our people, the sympathy of the whole world is with us. We cannot rant and rave Jammeh out of power; rather we have to act to remove him. Haven’t we had enough of Jammeh yet? We have, and we must bring him down. There is no better time than now.