Deyda Hydara – Two Years of Inertia
By Demba Jawo
As the two year anniversary of the gruesome execution of prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara draws nearer, our colleague and dean of the Gambian press corps Demba Ali Jawo reflects on the mysterious circumstances and the Gambia government's willy nilly attitude towards any attempt at investigating Deyda Hydara's death.
It is two years this week (December 16), since the murder of Deyda Hydara, Managing Editor of The Point Newspaper. And yet, Gambians and the international community are still waiting to get a clue as to who might have killed him or the motive of the killing. There is hardly any indication that the Gambian authorities are indeed investigating the case.
While there is no clue as to why Deyda was killed or who might have killed him, everything seems to point to his uncompromising stance on press freedom and to see justice and fair play done to all manner of people. Therefore, whoever killed him must have been an opponent of his views on those issues.
Of course, it is natural for everyone to expect the government to do everything possible in order to apprehend his killers. However, it is quite disappointing that the authorities have so far not lived up to such expectations. While in February 2005 we were told that the investigations were being removed from the hands of the police because they were not making any progress, and placed in the hands of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), two years later, not much progress seems to have been made. At first, everyone thought that with the might of the NIA and their unlimited power to do almost anything in this country, it would be a matter of time before a lead as to who killed him was established. Unfortunately however, rather than make any progress, all that we got was a “Confidential Report” in April 2005 which subjected Deyda’s character to some battering, portraying him as the most “reckless” person ever and indirectly blaming him instead, for inviting death upon himself.
Despite their failure to make any progress in the investigations into the murder, the government has so far resisted calls by the Gambia Press Union and other media rights groups to invite other more experienced security services such as the FBI of the USA, New Scotland Yard of the UK or even our Senegalese neighbours to help our inexperienced NIA investigate the case. It is indeed quite hard to understand why the government has taken such a stance.
Another interesting aspect of the whole scenario is the queer behaviour of the authorities whenever they are confronted with the issue of Deyda’s killing. We all heard how President Jammeh spent almost 30 minutes to make quite unsavory comments on the matter when a South African journalist asked him about Deyda during the press conference he held when the results of the presidential elections were released on September 23.
Another good case in point had been the behaviour of the authorities during the first anniversary of his death when the GPU organized an international conference to commemorate it. While the Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Technology Neneh Macdouall Gaye failed to attend the conference as guest speaker, despite giving an undertaking to do so, what intrigued everyone was the deployment of a heavily armed contingent of paramilitary forces at the site where Deyda was shot when the GPU and their international guests decided to pay a symbolic visit to the place at the end of the conference. No amount of coaxing and cajoling would persuade the paramilitary police to let anyone near the place, insisting that they were acting on “orders from above”.
Indeed, it has been observed that every time Deyda’s issue is raised, there is obvious uneasiness within official circles, for whatever reason, I cannot tell. There have also been numerous other occasions when the GPU or Deyda’s family have been confronted with some obstacles whenever they embark on something pertaining to his death. For instance, in May 2005 when the GPU was planning to launch the Deyda Hydara Foundation for Press Freedom, all the banners they printed and displayed in various prominent places in the Greater Banjul Area were removed overnight, despite the fact that there were other banners in those very places for several weeks and which were never touched.
It is also worth pointing out that his family have made several attempts to get a copy of the autopsy report to give it to a news agency he was reporting for in The Gambia, for insurance purposes, but they have not been successful. Neither the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital where the autopsy was carried out nor the police, who witnessed the exercise, have been willing or able to help make it available to them.
Another interesting comparison worth pointing out is how the authorities reacted to the killing earlier this year of a British national, William West when compared to their continued cool reaction to Deyda’s murder. We understand that in their bid to solve the killing of Mr. West, they quickly requested the assistance of the British police to help them investigate the case. Yet, they have resisted all calls to invite any outside assistance to help them investigate Deyda’s murder.
One would therefore wonder why they would seem to give priority to investigating the death of the Briton, who they no doubt never even knew before his death, over Deyda’s murder, who was not only a fellow Gambian, but a prominent member of our society as well. Are we therefore looking here at different types of justice being meted out to different people?
Therefore, it is quite sad that it has been two years since his murder and nothing seems to be done in order to apprehend his killers. I am however confident that no matter how long it may take, those behind this dastardly act would be apprehended one day-"Inshallah!!!"