Amnesty Urgent Action COUP SUSPECT’S TEENAGE SON HELD INCOMMUNICADO

 Yusupha Lowe, the 16 year old son of Bai Lowe, a man accused of being involved in the 30 December 2014 attempted coup in Gambia, was arrested on 1 January. Initial reports indicated that he was being held at the National Intelligence Agency headquarters, but credible sources now indicate that he is no longer being held there. Yusupha Lowe, the 16 year old son of Bai Lowe (who is alleged to have been involved in the attempted coup of 30 December 2014 in Gambia) was arrested together with his 19-year-old uncle, Pa Alieu Lowe and his father’s exwife, Jariatou Lowe, on 1 January. They were taken from Bai Lowe’s residence at around 1:00pm by men in plain clothes claiming to be following presidential orders. A few weeks later, Jariatou Lowe was released without charge. However, Yusupha Lowe and Pa Alieu Lowe remain in incommunicado detention, without being charged and having no access to lawyers or family members. Initial reports had indicated that Yusupha Lowe was being held at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters in Banjul, Gambia, but credible sources now indicate that he is no longer being held there. His current whereabouts remain unknown and his family is concerned about his safety. Relatives of people suspected to have been involved in the 30 December 2014 coup attempt have been subjected to reprisals by Gambian security forces. It is unclear how many people remain in incommunicado detention. Amnesty International is concerned about the unlawful detention without charge of Yusupha Lowe and other relatives of the December 2014 coup suspects, well beyond the 72 hour time limit provided in Gambia’s constitution and other human rights laws and treaties. The Gambian government has refused to acknowledge the detention of Yusupha Lowe and many others and has not provided information on their whereabouts, effectively holding them outside of the protection of the law. This amounts to enforced disappearance, a crime under international law. As their whereabouts remain unknown, they are at a high risk of torture and other abuses. Please write immediately in English or your own language:  Urging the authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of Yusupha Lowe and all other detainees;  Calling on the authorities to promptly charge Yusupha Lowe and all other detainees with an internationally recognizable criminal offense should there be sufficient evidence or else immediately release them;  Calling on the authorities to immediately provide all the people detained in relation to the December 2014 coup attempt access to their families and lawyers;  Urging authorities to ensure that all detainees are not subjected to torture or ill-treatment while in detention.

Libya: Civilians Trapped in Benghazi

Allow Safe Passage, Aid Access

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  Downtown area of Benghazi, Libya where forces loyal to the Libyan Army are fighting Islamist militias, April 2015.
  © 2015 Hanan Salah/Human Rights Watch

As fighting in Benghazi intensifies, all the forces involved need to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property. It’s vitally important for the Libyan Army and militias in Benghazi to allow civilians safe passage and to facilitate access to take badly needed aid to the people inside.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director.

(Beirut) – The parties to the conflict in Libya should allow civilians safe passage out of neighborhoods in the eastern city of Benghazi and other areas caught up in the hostilities and permit access to deliver food and medical supplies.

Residents of Benghazi whom Human Rights Watch met on April 17, 2015, and interviewed by phone on May 21 said that Libyan families and foreign civilians were trapped in downtown Benghazi affected by fighting, including areas of El-Blad, Sidi Khreibish, and El-Sabri. They said the militants controlling these areas were not allowing civilians to leave, and conditions were increasingly dire, due to food shortages and lack of medical care and because electricity to most areas had been cut. One Sidi Khreibish resident who managed to leave said that the Libyan army would no longer allow people to leave unless through a coordinated safe passage by the Libyan Red Crescent, and that militants were barring people from leaving the areas under their control.

Another Benghazi resident who had managed to leave militia-controlled areas said at least four civilians had died since March, one from gunfire and three from untreated injuries.

“As fighting in Benghazi intensifies, all the forces involved need to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “It’s vitally important for the Libyan Army and militias in Benghazi to allow civilians safe passage and to facilitate access to take badly needed aid to the people inside.”

The number of people killed and injured in Benghazi has continued to rise since Human Rights Watch visited the city in April. On May 12, a shell fired into the Ard Baloun neighborhood killed three children and injured two others from the same family, according to a local news report. Militants affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack. Two days later, one man and seven children died when a shell hit the Hay Al-Salam neighborhood, according to the website of Al-Jalaa hospital in Benghazi.

The Benghazi residents told Human Rights Watch that the Libyan Red Crescent Society had coordinated arrangements with forces loyal to the Libyan Army and the opposing militants to allow civilians safe passage out of the city’s neighborhoods until November 4, 2014. Since then, all further attempts by the Red Crescent to facilitate the evacuation of civilians had failed, including three attempts in February and March 2015, because either the militants disagreed or forces loyal to the army refused to agree, claiming that it would put the civilians’ lives at risk.

After such a failed attempt in March, an injured resident died after the Army refused to allow passage for a car carrying him insisting that residents could only leave the area by foot.

Abdelrazeq al-Nadhouri, the Libyan Army’s chief of staff, met with Human Rights Watch on April 18 at his headquarters in Al-Marj, 100 kilometers east of Benghazi. He contended that families who remained in the areas affected by fighting “wanted to stay there and refused to leave,” but said that the army would allow any who wished to do so to leave.

The same day, Zakaria Beltamer, the head of the Benghazi Crisis Committee, a body created by the Prime Ministry with several local council members and the Libyan Red Crescent, told Human Rights Watch in a separate meeting that the Red Crescent had made several calls for the evacuation of civilians, that all families had been evacuated from the affected parts of Benghazi neighborhoods, and that “whoever is still inside is with them,” meaning members of Ansar Al-Sharia or Islamist militants.

But Benghazi residents who spoke with Human Rights Watch, including a Red Crescent volunteer who helped coordinate evacuations, contradicted his assessment. The volunteer said that the Red Crescent had registered 58 people by phone in militia-controlled areas who wanted to leave but were unable to for fear of being attacked by the militias if they tried.

Beltamer said there has been widespread displacement of families from Benghazi since the outbreak of the violence in May 2014. He said that 15,000 families were registered with the Crisis Committee as internally displaced persons but acknowledged that many others had found shelter with relatives or had left the city altogether and had not registered. Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city – after the capital, Tripoli – had a population of 650,000 prior to the start of the conflict out of Libya’s total population of 6.4 million.

Under international humanitarian law – the laws of war – all forces engaged in armed conflict must allow civilians to safely evacuate from areas affected by fighting and give civilians “effective advance warning” of attacks that could put them at risk whenever circumstances permit. Even after armed forces have warned civilians of impending attacks, they must still take all feasible precautions to avoid causing loss of civilian life. This includes canceling an attack when it becomes apparent that the target is civilian or that the civilian loss would be disproportionate to the expected military gain.

Warnings such as those issued by the Libyan Army in November telling civilians to evacuate their neighborhoods do not absolve it of the duty to avoid attacks likely to cause indiscriminate or disproportionate loss of civilian life, Human Rights Watch said.

International humanitarian law also requires parties to a conflict to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need. Denying civilians access to food and medical care is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, and intentionally attacking personnel, installations, material, units, or vehicles involved in relief efforts is a war crime.

In the face of mounting atrocities, Human Rights Watch has called on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into serious ongoing violations in Libya. The ICC prosecutor has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Libya since February 15, 2011.

During the 28th session at the Human Rights Council in March 2015, member states created a UN inquiry to investigate serious crimes in Libya since 2014. Human Rights Watch urged the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to speed up the deployment of the mission so it can exercise its mandate.

“With each day that passes, civilians who remain trapped in Benghazi neighborhoods face worsening conditions and greater peril for their lives,” Whitson said.

The Opposing Forces in Benghazi
Benghazi has been caught up in fighting since May 2014, when then-retired General Khalifa Hiftar and allied militias operating under the name “Libya Dignity” opened a military campaign against militant groups in Benghazi. The Dignity alliance in Benghazi comprises units of the Army, the Army Special Forces (Sa’eqa), and volunteer fighters. The Libyan Army is loyal to Libya’s internationally recognized government based in the eastern cities of Tobruk and Al-Bayda, and in March 2015 Hiftar was named commander of the army.

In July 2014, the militant groups Ansar Al-Sharia, Rafallah Al-Sahati, and Libya Shield Forces, some of the militant groups the army is fighting in Benghazi, formed the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC), which opposes the internationally recognized government and is allied with the rival self-declared government based in Tripoli. Members of groups that have pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) are also fighting the Libyan Army alongside the BRSC but are not in formal military alliance with the BRSC, Benghazi residents say.

Accounts by Residents
Due to the ongoing military operations and movement restrictions, Human Rights Watch was unable to enter the downtown areas of Benghazi to independently confirm the numbers or locations of trapped civilians.

A Benghazi resident whose father and brother had managed to flee the downtown area just a day before told Human Rights Watch on April 17, 2015, and in a call on May 21, that he knew of 50 to 60 houses in ‘ El Blad that remained inhabited with at least 15 to 20 families, as well as at least 15 families who remained in El-Sabri, and about 60 houses in Sidi Khreibish, 10 of which were inhabited by Libyan families and the rest by foreign families, including Syrians, Palestinians, and Asian and African nationals. The resident also said the most difficult area to assess was El-Sabri because it was controlled by groups affiliated with ISIS. He believed several dozen families were still in El-Sabri, close to the sea, but had no contact with them.

The resident said that while some young men refused to leave, most families were anxious to evacuate to less dangerous areas. “Most families thought it would be a matter of weeks before the war in their area was over, so they opted to stay and take care of their houses,” he said. “However, they are now stuck there, including women, children, and elderly.”

He said it had taken only three days for the Libyan Army to gain control of the Salmani neighborhood, leading many families to think that other areas would also be quickly cleared of BRSC and other militants.

He also said that his family had left their home in downtown Benghazi on November 3, 2014, under a safe passage that the Red Crescent had arranged, but that his father and brother had stayed to take care of the house. They left only on April 16, 2015:

They swam [through the sea, along the coast] for four hours at night and I was waiting for them when they arrived to safety. Those trapped have some dry food stocks, yet no medical treatment as the only field clinic belongs to the militant group Ansar Al-Sharia and they don’t treat sick or injured civilians. Most areas have no power and people charge their mobile phones in their cars.

He said the escape of his father’s and brother’s escape had been dangerous but was coordinated with the Libyan military, which had detained the two men for questioning on their arrival but released them after two days. The resident said that only a few other men and one family had managed to get away from the conflict area by swimming.

The resident said he knew of four civilian deaths through information obtained by relatives in the area:

• Abu Shawki, 75, a Palestinian, died in March when a bullet hit him in the head as he walked along Al-Sharif Street in Sidi Khreibish;
• Ossma Al-Greitli, 65, died in early April from injuries he sustained in February when he was hit by shrapnel in El-Gzeir Street. He had not received any medical treatment;
• An unnamed Syrian national also died in early April, two days after shrapnel hit him in the abdomen as he was leaving the Old Mosque in the downtown area. No medical care was available; and
• Ahmed al-Zlitni died in mid-March at his home in the El-Sabri neighborhood from a lack of medical treatment after he was burned in a fire caused by candles he used because of power cuts.

An unnamed Mauritanian national was found dead in front of a mosque in El-Sabri area in the first week of May. Two residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they believed members of ISIS affiliated militia had killed him when a group of civilians tried to leave the area which is under the militia’s control.

Another resident told Human Rights Watch on May 20 that her father was still trapped in the Sidi Khreibish neighborhood. She said that she and other family members evacuated on November 4, but that her father had stayed behind to take care of their home because he expected the army to quickly drive what the militia groups from the area.

She said that approximately 80 other families also remained in Sidi Khreibish and, like her father, existed on flour from a local bakery and tinned and dry foods obtained from supermarkets that had been shut and homes in the area. Her father and their neighbors were eating only one meal a day, she said. Power supplies to the area had been cut off four months earlier and residents had little access to phone networks and the Internet:

I am afraid for my father as things have gotten very bad. After we left in November, we repeatedly attempted to coordinate with the Red Crescent for a safe passage for him and for others to leave the area but the takfiris [Islamist militias] controlling the area refused to allow the civilians out. Right now, even the army will not let anyone out of the area as there are no guarantees from the other side [Islamist militias].

A volunteer at the Libyan Red Crescent Society, who is in charge of the evacuations of civilians from the downtown areas of Benghazi, told Human Rights Watch on May 21 the Red Crescent had only registered 28 Libyan nationals and 30 foreigners by telephone, including some women and children, who remained trapped in the downtown area. The Red Crescent has had no access to the area since November, the volunteer said. The volunteer acknowledged that many families and individuals did not register with the Red Crescent for fear of being targeted by the extremists or because they sympathized with them:

Despite assurances by the army that everyone would be allowed to exit the areas, including the injured of the other side [Islamist militia groups], many people who are inside the downtown area are afraid of the extremists. We were informed that one man who used to negotiate with them [Islamist militia groups] has now gone missing and hasn’t been heard of for five days. It has become very complicated for us, as there is no longer one person or a single group side to coordinate with. There are at least three, with Ansar Al-Sharia, The Libyan Shield Forces, and those loyal to the Islamic State, dividing the downtown area between them.

source: http://www.hrw.org/news

IMF: Fixing Exchange Rates Will Make Matters Worse For Economy

The Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund has said that The Gambia government’s decision to fix the exchange rate of the country’s depreciating currency, the dalasi, against major currencies of the world will make matters worse for the economy.

Gaston Mpatswe, who was yesterday briefing journalists barely a month after IMF approved a 10 million US dollar bailout  for the country, said the sooner the authorities lift the restrictions on the foreign exchange, the better for the economy.

He said: “The depreciation of the dalasi is a symptom of what is happening in the economy. It is just a symptom of the problems that were in the economy over a period of time.  And we believe that fixing the exchange rate is not helping the economy. When you fix it, people will keep their foreign currency and that will make matters even worse. It also will increase speculation, excess demand pressure, makes export of Gambian goods and services expensive and it will have direct impact on the poor because it will not reduce inflation or depreciation of the dalasi and families that are relying on remittances will have to spend on those expensive goods after the exchange rate has gone down. The recovery of the dollar also affected the dalasi.

“We have engaged the government on economic implications of fixing foreign exchange rate. We will have a consultation with the government on the economy in future and we will provide fiscal advice on what the government might do to tackle certain problems in the economy.

“Gambia has been registering a volatile growth rate over the years. The country needs 3.3 percent over a sustained period to be able to reduce poverty. I cannot say if The Gambia is in an economic recession; the economy is facing severe challenges that have to be corrected. The economy is at a crossroads. The government has been borrowing to finance its increasing deficit, both domestically and externally. The Gambian economy needs structural adjustment.

“The export of the country is around $107.3 million while import is around $306.6 million. The fiscal deficit has steadily increased; it was estimated at 4.45 billion dalasis at the end of 2014, against a surplus in 2007. The Gambia’s first challenges are related to structure of the economy and repeated spending pressures that have been affecting the country over a period of time.”

Source www.http://standard.gm/

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Burundi Opposition Figure Shot Dead

Zedi Feruzi was the head of the opposition party Union for Peace and Development [Citi FM]

Opposition officials confirm death of Union for Peace of Development party leader in capital Bujumbura.

Zedi Feruzi, a leader of an opposition party, has been shot dead alongside his bodyguard in Bujumbura, a leading opposition figure has confirmed to Al Jazeera.

Feruzi, whose bloodied body was found in the Ngagara district of Bujumbura on Saturday evening, was the head of the opposition party Union for Peace and Development (UPD).

Leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, said there was no information on who had killed Feruzi, but he had spoken out against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third-term in office.

Residents said a third person, believed to be another police officer tasked with protecting Feruzi, was seriously injured in the incident.

“We heard around 20 gunshots, everyone fell to the ground, people saw a Toyota car speeding away,” said a neighbour, who did not witness the shooting himself.

Around an hour after the attack police had yet to arrive at the scene, according to the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, two barricades of tyres were set alight in the district, where local youths were sealing off streets and alleyways to outsiders.

Saturday’s assassination will add to tensions in Burundi after a month of protests against President Nkurunziza.

A coup attempt to remove Nkurunziza by army officers opposed to his decision to contest the presidential vote failed after the intervention of loyal members of the military.

More than 20 people have died in anti-government protests since the president’s announcement to stand in late April.

Source: Al Jazeera And AFP

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US: Military Whistleblowers At Risk

Retaliation for Reporting Sexual Assault

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The US military’s progress in getting people to report sexual assaults isn’t going to continue as long as retaliation for making a report goes unpunished. Ending retaliation is critical to addressing the problem of sexual assault in the military.

Sara Darehshori, senior US counsel

(Washington, DC) – US military service members who report sexual assault frequently experience retaliation that goes unpunished, Human Rights Watch said.  The report is the result of an 18-month investigation by Human Rights Watch with the support of Protect Our Defenders, a human rights organization that supports and advocates for survivors of military sexual assault. Despite extensive reforms by the Defense Department to address sexual assault, the military has done little to hold retaliators to account or provide effective remedies for retaliation.

The 113-page report, “Embattled: Retaliation against Sexual Assault Survivors in the US Military,” finds that both male and female military personnel who report sexual assault are 12 times as likely to experience some form of retaliation as to see their attacker convicted of a sex offense. Retaliation against survivors ranges from threats, vandalism, and harassment to poor work assignments, loss of promotion opportunities, disciplinary action including discharge, and even criminal charges.

“The US military’s progress in getting people to report sexual assaults isn’t going to continue as long as retaliation for making a report goes unpunished,” saidSara Darehshori, senior US counsel at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “Ending retaliation is critical to addressing the problem of sexual assault in the military.”

The exclusive mechanism intended to protect service members from employment-related retaliation, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, has yet to help a single service member whose career was harmed, despite the prevalence of the problem. Defense Department surveys indicate that 62 percent of those who report sexual assault say they experienced retaliation. Congress should strengthen the law to give service members the same level of protection as civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch, with assistance from Protect Our Defenders, conducted more than 250 in-person and telephone interviews, including with more than 150 service member survivors of sexual assault. The report relies primarily on the accounts of 75 survivors who are currently serving or left the military in 2011 or later. Human Rights Watch also examined numerous US government documents produced in response to public record requests, and analyzed data about administrative decisions in which service members had sought corrections to their records in relation to a sexual assault. The research included all branches of the US military.


“A certain Sergeant in my platoon had told me he would kill me if we ever went to Afghanistan because ‘friendly fire is a tragic accident that happens,’” said a soldier who reported a sexual assault by a male soldier from another platoon in 2012. “After I had been there for a year, someone tried to knife me in a bar and kept screaming ‘DIE FAGGOT, DIE’ and that was when I told my Captain that I wanted a discharge before I ended up dead on the evening news which would be bad for him too.”

Defense Department statistics indicate the pervasive problem of retaliation, and various disciplinary actions are available. Yet Human Rights Watch found little effort to deter retaliation by holding wrongdoers accountable for their acts.

Victims of retaliation by their supervisors rarely turn to the Boards for Correction of Military Records, the administrative bodies responsible for correcting injustices to service members’ records. Human Rights Watch found that alleged attackers sought and received corrections in their records far more often than victims, even though victims are much more likely to experience administrative action needing correction. 

“When no one is held accountable for retaliation, it creates a hostile environment for all survivors, and sends a message to criminals that they can act with impunity” said Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders and former chief prosecutor of the US Air Force. “When a survivor who reports sexual assault is 12 times more likely to suffer retaliation than they are to see their rapist convicted, it demonstrates the military has a long way to go in fixing this problem.”

Protect Our Defenders has created a Pro Bono network of lawyers and organizational staff to assist rape and sexual assault survivors with claims arising from being raped or sexually assaulted while on active duty, including claims relating to the various forms of retaliation.

A major barrier to reporting sexual assault is fear of punishment for minor misconduct at the time of the assault, such as underage drinking or adultery, Human Rights Watch found. Though the military does not consider this retaliation, for survivors facing charges, the consequences could be devastating. Several survivors interviewed were court-martialed or disciplined for actions that only came to light because they reported their assaults. Even if they are acquitted or given minor disciplinary action, any reprimand may be fatal to prospects for promotion or the ability to stay in service. Congress should prohibit this type of punishment to ensure that victims of violent crimes can report them without fear of negative consequences.

Human Rights Watch also documented the negative repercussions for survivors who reported or sought assistance with recovery from sexual assault. Survivors reported significant barriers to mental health care – from stigma to lack of confidentiality – that may negatively impact military readiness. The Defense Department should expand initiatives created as part of its response to sexual assault, such as the Special Victim Counsel program and expedited transfers, and non-military options for mental health care, in order to give survivors the tools and control to direct their recovery and their future in the military, Human Rights Watch said.

“Service members who report sexual assault should not only be protected from retaliation, but they should also have access to the health care and support they need,” said Meghan Rhoad, women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “No one should be forced to choose between reporting being raped and staying in the military.”

http://www.hrw.org/source_ 

Gambia, Togo Deny ECOWAS Term Limit

No to term limit. Faure Gnassingbe, President of Togo

How convenient for other ECOWAS leaders to wave along with the votes of two small countries against the proposal to cap Presidential term in office at the Accra ECOWAS bloc summit. If ECOWAS want to salvage any self-respect from being a toothless bogus African regional money wasting diplomatic outfit, then they have to convene an emergency meeting and adopt the voting rights of the majority. How can two small countries ruled by bandits and mafias prevailed over 13 bigger countries?
Gambia and Togo should be made to adopt the term limit proposal and ECOWAS thus cement a legacy of promoting genuine democracy and rule of law. The lack of electoral reforms and the adoptions of ‘term limits’ are the major causes of conflicts and post-election violence in Africa. ECOWAS has shown a lack of muscle and wherewithal in many endeavours, however, if they can get the ‘term limit’ in office right, many of their failures will be forgiven.

A condition should lay down on Gambia and Togo, if they failed to heed, let them be kicked out of ECOWAS regional bloc and lose out on all the multilateral benefits and common trade agreements and travel benefits. Gambia and Togo can ignore EU but not ECOWAS. Salvage some decency and pride ECOWAS. It is Pathetic and sad, Africa still struggles with the basics yet we want to bash former colonial master at every given opportunity. Let ECOWAS be realistic and reconvene an emergency season under the new head, Macky Sall. This issue will not go away. Africa needs leadership in ending permanently all avenues to civil war and needless loss of life. Get the political temperature right and the rest will fall in-line.

Below is the press statement.

ACCRA, May 19 (Reuters) – West African leaders on Tuesday rejected a proposal to impose a region-wide limit to the number of terms presidents can serve, after opposition to the idea from Togo and Gambia, Ghana’s foreign minister said.

The proposal was discussed at a regional summit in Accra. Togo and Gambia are the only members of West Africa’s ECOWAS bloc that do not limit the number of presidential terms to two.

“It was a proposal that was put on the agenda for the heads of state and governments to decide on and at the end today’s deliberations, it was not adopted.” Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh told Reuters.

“This dissenting view (from Togo and the Gambia) became the majority view at the end of the day,” she said. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo and David Lewis; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Bate Felix and Robin Pomeroy)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3088315/W-African-leaders-drop-term-limit-idea-Gambia-Togo-oppose.html#ixzz3afxEaZhN
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Where is Britain,s compassion For Migrants In Crises

    

May 13, 2015

David Mepham

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  A Libyan Navy boat carries migrants back to the coastal city of Misrata May 3, 2015.
  © 2015 Reuters

On the steps of Downing Street last Friday morning, fresh from an election victory, David Cameron described Britain as a country of “great compassion”. He’s right. The British public contributes generously to humanitarian appeals in response to natural disasters or other emergencies around the world. But there is little evidence of either compassion or generosity in the British government’s own response to the unprecedented crisis along Europe’s southern coastline.
Today the European Commission will propose a new EU-wide policy on migration, which is expected to recommend – sensibly and appropriately – that the EU agrees to take a larger number of refugees, as well as a new mechanism for sharing out more equitably the responsibility for refugee protection across the 28 member states. But UK Ministers have already rejected the proposals, saying that they will not participate in the scheme or accept any additional refugees into the UK.
Britain’s response is simply indefensible. Less wealthy countries like Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon are hosting millions of Syrian refugees; Lebanon alone has over a million. And while Europe as a whole should be prepared to do more, Britain’s record compares unfavourably with that of other EU member states. In 2014, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden all granted asylum to more people than Britain.  
While a staggering 1,750 migrants and asylum seekers have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean since the start of the year, the British government also chooses to present this crisis not in terms of human rights or humanitarian obligations, but primarily as one of border control and law enforcement. At the UN Security Council, the British are pressing for military action to destroy the vessels being used to make the crossing to Europe. But they have not explained how such action would make things safer for asylum seekers and their young families, or what destroying their only escape route would mean for those then left behind in chaotic and conflict-ridden Libya.
This approach also willfully ignores the massive and multiple push factors that lead people to flee their homes. Half of those who reached Italy from North Africa last year were from Syria, Eritrea, and Somalia – countries wracked by extraordinary violence and insecurity, where human rights abuses are egregious and widespread. Is David Cameron really suggesting that those who escaped the horrors of war-ravaged Syria or the police state that is Eritrea should be forced to go back there? The British people are more compassionate than that, and their government should be too
source: www.hrw.org

First ICC Acquitted Defendant Returned to DR Congo

      

                                                                  Netherlands Rejected Asylum Claim Over Safety Fears

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(Kinshasa) Mathieu Ngudjolo, the first defendant to be acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was deported to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 11, 2015, his lawyers said. Following his acquittal by the ICC, Ngudjolo said he feared for his safety if returned to Congo. However, Netherlands immigration authorities did not find grounds to grant his asylum claim.

“We and others will be looking to the Congolese authorities to ensure Mathieu Ngudjolo’s safety and security once he is back in Congo,” said Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The ICC, which has an office in Kinshasa, and the Dutch embassy should closely monitor Ngudjolo’s situation for as long as necessary.”

Ngudjolo was the former chief of staff of the Front for National Integration (FNI), an armed group involved in the local and regional conflict that ravaged the Ituri province of eastern Congo in the early 2000s. He was arrested in Kinshasa by the Congolese authorities in 2008 pursuant to an ICC arrest warrant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the village of Bogoro, Ituri, in February 2003. The ICC trial chamber acquitted Ngudjolo of all charges in December 2012. The acquittal was confirmed in appeal on February 27, 2015.

Ngujdolo has filed for compensation at the ICC following his acquittal.
source:http://www.hrw.org/

Tired of presidents in West Africa changing their constitutions

             

Tired of presidents in West Africa changing their constitutions to run for third term in office and creating instability, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is planning to enact a new clause that will prohibit presidents of member countries from staying beyond two terms.
This clause will be tabled at the next ECOWAS meeting this week. Reliable ECOWAS sources told The Finder that when adopted, the clause will bind all member states, even though proponents are not sure if member states will abide by the clause.
Political analysts say a situation whereby elected presidents who swear to protect the constitution often end up messing up the same through kangaroo referendums to remove term limits and run for third, fourth and as many terms as they want amounts to ‘civilian coup,’ which should equally be condemned as military coup d’états.
Examples are the cases in Togo, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
To enforce the new clause that prohibits third term as well as all protocols, conventions, declarations and directives, ECOWAS is also considering the adoption of a new legal regime for Community Acts that will make all ECOWAS decisions immediately applicable and binding on member states and eliminate parliamentary approvals.
Information on ECOWAS website indicates that the new legal regime for Community Acts is part of the transformation of the Secretariat into a Commission.
Until now, obligations of member states were captured principally in Protocols and Conventions which are subject to lengthy parliamentary ratification processes by each member state.
These processes delayed the entry into force of the legal texts, thereby paralysing the integration process.
Decisions of the authority were, however, immediately applicable and binding on member states whilst those emanating from the Council of Ministers were only applicable and binding on the Community Institutions.
Under the new legal regime, the principle of supranational becomes more pre-eminent and there is now a de-emphasis on the adoption of Conventions and Protocols.
Community Acts will be Supplementary Acts, Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Recommendations and Opinion. Thus, the authority passes Supplementary Acts to complete the Treaty.
Supplementary Acts are binding on member states and the institutions of the community.
The Council of Ministers enacts Regulations and Directives and makes Decisions and Recommendations.
Regulations have general application and all their provisions are enforceable and directly applicable in member states.
They are enforceable in the institutions of the community. Decisions are enforceable in member states and all designated therein. Directives and their objectives are binding on all Member States.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
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Breaking News: Gambia’s Chief Justice Fired, Expelled

           

Dictator Jammeh has just fired the Chief Justice. Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan is also declared personna non grata. He is given 72 hours to leave the shores of The Gambia.
Kairo News got this breaking news an hour after the firing took place. Justice Nawaz attempted to preside over high profile cases without consulting or preempting his verdicts to President Jammeh.  
The sacking of Justice Nawaz is reported to have been with the acquittals of former Navy Chief Rear Admiral Sarjo Fofana. President Jammeh is said to be seriously upset with the acquittal of Sarjo Fofana and decided to demonstrate who is in-charge.

More details will follow.
Below is a news article about the appointment of Nawaz some months ago:
The Gambia has appointed a Pakistani legal expert Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan as the country’s next chief justice, replacing the Ghanaian Mabel Agyemang who was sacked after a short spell in charge.
According to media reports on Friday, Internationally renowned Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan took the oath of office in the presence of Gambian President Dr. Yahya Jammeh on Thursday after he was confirmed to the position.
Speaking at the occasion, the president thanked the new judiciary boss and the two judges for accepting the challenge, assuring of his government’s commitment to ensuring quality dispensation of justice.
“Every appointment comes with responsibilities and the most important responsibility is safeguarding the trust reposed in you,” Jammeh told the new adjudicators. “We have appointed you as a brother to serve your second home and I have no doubt in your ability and integrity. Justice is universal but constitutions are unique and you are sworn-in as chief justice of The Gambia to implement Gambian laws, which are not promulgated by me, the president, but by the people of The Gambia so that every Gambian and anybody in this country will live according to the laws of this country so that there would be peace and order in this country.”
The head of state also used his speech to comment on the longstanding relationship between The Gambia and Pakistan, a bond he said, that has grown into brotherly ties.
He thanked Pakistan for contributing to the continued peace and security of The Gambia. He assured the newly sworn-in officials of his support at all times.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Chief Justice Chowhan said he was honoured to be accorded such a privilege to serve in the Gambian judiciary.
He commended President Jammeh for the powerful speech he delivered in Nigeria during that country’s centenary celebration. “I was particularly impressed with human rights issue, the co-existence of fellow human beings, respect for religion that was extremely great,” he said, while defining justice as “the faculty of the soul from which close actions lead to the sustenance of the system on which human civilization rests.”
http://www.geo.tv/article-140333-Pakistani-appointed-Gambias-new-Chief-Justice
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Chief Ebrima Manneh’s Untold Story

Truth about Chief Manneh peeling off one by one!

The reason why the government was hiding him at the time was because our CiC [Commander-in-Chied] and president, has already declared that Ebrima Manneh was not in state custody, when that is not true. It now becomes a complicated matter for Chief Ebrima Manneh, after spending years in detention, and could not be produced. 

As the Gambia joins the rest of the World to celebrate World Press Freedom Day today, May 3rd, 2015, I wish to join you (Media practitioners) in commemoration despite being a senior security officer. I am a bonafide senior citizen with a vast wealth of experience in the National Intelligence operations. As such, I wish to assure you that many of us are appreciative of your troubles and efforts towards ensuring a free society in The Gambia. I understand your pains and sacrifices for such a cause.

Today, as you commemorate this Day, I wish to extend special solidarity with the family of Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, who was held in incommunicado since 7th July, 2006. I will today make a ground-breaking revelation on all the information that the Gambian authorities are deliberately denying Manneh’s family, professional colleagues and the population, regarding all the events leading to his arrest by our own agents, and what he went through till his subsequent disappearance under their custody.

Just like you practitioners, we the Gambian security officers ourselves and the Gambian populace in general are no longer safe and secure, as long as our Commander in Chief (CiC) remains in power. Therefore, as discreet efforts to unseat him have so far been unsuccessful, one way we can take on him is not through Coup alone, but the quest to expose all the wrong-doings we have been executing against innocent citizens under our CiC’s directives.
I want to take the lead in this crusade, beginning with the Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh’s case, as per the findings we have made on his whereabouts contained in our case files in the NIA, under the Office of the President.

Considering the failing trend through which our commander in chief (CiC), President Yahya Jammeh is taking, I deemed it imperative to shed light on Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh’s disappearance. Already, some key people who know, or have hands in the disappearance of Chief Manneh are dying. Therefore, if proper measures are not instituted, a lot of information known to people will die down without any trace, testimony or proper evidence.
Based on our investigations at the NIA and as per the files available at our Desk, I noticed that Journalist Ebrima Manneh, a senior reporter of the Daily Observer newspaper, was picked up by two agents of the NIA. The officers were instructed to effect arrest on Chief Ebrima Manneh on July 7th, 2006, following The Gambia’s hosting of the 7th African Union Summit in Banjul.

Prior to his arrest, Chief Manneh had travelled to the US on the maiden direct flight of the defunct North American Airlines linking Banjul to New York.
From the NIA Red file case, Chief Manneh Vs the State, Strictly Confidential

Below is a synopsis of his activities before his arrest, events leading to his arrest and detention, as well as investigations into his case by our NIA office under the command of President Jammeh.

The US Trip
As mentioned above, Chief Ebrima Manneh, alongside Hamidou Baldeh, former marketing manager of the Observer Company, in May 2006, travelled to the United States of America on the maiden direct flight of the now defunct North American Airlines linking Banjul to New York. Going by our investigations at the NIA, this journey lasted two days and both of them returned to The Gambia.

Chief Manneh then continued his work at the Observer as a senior reporter attached to State House, covering President Jammeh’s programmes and activities. Records have shown that Journalist Manneh returned to the country and even published stories about their experience with the then newly introduced Banjul-New York North American Airlines flight. Other reports were also authored by him in the Observer, copies of which we already have here at the NIA.

The AU Summit
Going by our files, The Gambia officially hosted the 7th edition of the African Union Summit between the 2nd and 5th July 2006 and the following day, July 6th was a public holiday but Chief Manneh went to work alongside his colleagues to do the publication for the next day . While working at The Observer office Bakau on the 7th July, two of our NIA agents went to arrest him.

These arresting officers only received orders to go and arrest, but actually they did not know the reason they effected the arrest. Besides, they were never part of any investigations.

Events leading to his arrest
During the investigations at the NIA, we discovered that Chief Manneh was accused by his former boss, the late Dr. Saja Taal, the then Managing Director of The Observer Company. Dr. Taal complained that Chief Ebrima Manneh had downloaded an article from the BBC website on the internet that was critical of The Gambia’s hosting the AU summit due to its poor human rights records, lack of democracy and press freedom, etc. for publication in the first post-AU Summit edition of the paper’s international news round up.

In fact, after examining the said international news page of that yet-to-be published edition of Observer, another article based on Kofi Anan (former UN Secretary General’s) speech at the AU Summit, was highly critical. That article called for presidential term limits for African presidents, greater democracy and freedom in the continent, which obviously were not pleasant to our head of state. These were to form the next day’s edition of Observer international news page as downloaded by Chief Ebrima Manneh.

Further investigations revealed that Chief Manneh who was on duties that day, printed the said articles into a transparent film and it was sent to the printers in the press room for printing. According to our findings, when Pa Malick Faye, at that time a senior editor at Observer, came to work in the afternoon, he went through the news pages and found that the said articles were included in the news bulletin for the next day.

Our investigations further revealed that Mr. Faye, then picked up the phone and called the late Dr. Saja Taal, to inform him about the said articles which Chief Manneh put in the paper for the next day. Dr Saja Taal, who according to investigations was not in good terms with Chief Ebrima Manneh, then rushed to the office and instructed the printers to halt the printing immediately. We also gathered that about 250 copies of the page that were already printed were ordered to be burnt instantly. The said single transparent paper that was prepared by Chief Ebrima Manneh for the printers was then taken away by the late Dr. Saja Taal. Taal gave the film to the late Momodou Sanyang, former GRTS Director General and board member of The Observer at the time.It was also found that the late Momodou Sanyang also reported the matter to Neneh Macdouall Gaye, then Minister of Information and Board Chair of Observer. She is currently minister of Foreign Affairs.

Our reports here at the NIA have it that it was Neneh Macduoall Gaye who took the transparent film bearing the articles in question to the president’s office at State House and reported Chief Manneh, going by the information she received from her subordinates – (the late Dr. Saja Taal and the late Momodou Sanyang). This was the exact reason why Chief Ebrima Manneh was arrested by plain cloth officers of our Agency, under the president’s directives.

Also, during the course of the investigation, we were informed that after the said printed copies were burnt, Dr Taal called Lamin Kujabi, former Observer Store keeper to go back to the Observer office that night and give the printers another set of transparent films to restart the printing proper. This was done.

Note: I will also be happy to reveal at this point that the said Lamin Kujabi was my colleague in the NIA and he was sent to The Observer as an informer for the authorities. This was in the days of the late Hon. Baba Jobe. And until he decided to quit the job and travel abroad, he was on our payroll and I can give you his payroll number in the agency’s service.

International pressure into his case
As investigations into Ebrima Manneh’s case deepens, coupled with the pressure and international outcry over his disappearance for many years, both the NIA and Interpol were tasked to investigate his whereabouts. At the NIA, we did not take it seriously because we already knew he was with us and that is why we were moving him from one detention center to another across the country, so that the UN investigators and other human rights agencies will not find him.

Note: The reason why the government was hiding him at the time was because our CiC and president, has already declared that Ebrima Manneh was not in state custody, when that is not true. It now becomes a complicated matter for Chief Ebrima Manneh, after spending years in detention, and could not be produced.

During this period, we (The NIA) have already interrogated the late Dr. Saja Taal, the late Momodou Sanyang. Pa Malick Faye was interviewed by the Interpol in Banjul regarding his knowledge into Chief Ebrima Manneh’s circumstances and the said articles he wanted to print on the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the president should give us orders to arrest and investigate Neneh Macdouall Gaye if he really wants to answer to the international community on Chief Manneh’s case. Also Pa Malick Faye has a case to answer in this, and he should be recalled for a proper investigation, hence Dr. Taal and Momodou Sanyang are no longer living witnesses.

During our investigations, we also received reports of the testimonies of the witnesses at the Ecowas Court of Justice in Nigeria in 2008, during which Pa Ousman Darboe, a former colleague of Chief Ebrima Manneh told the ECOWAS court his knowledge into the case.
We have gathered from our files that in those days at Observer, there were six senior editors running the paper and the management divided them into two shifts. Chief Ebrima Manneh, Pa Malick Faye and Lamin Dibba were on the same shift in one group; whilst Ebrima Jaw Manneh, Pa Ousman Darboe and Abdoulie John were in the other group. Our investigations showed that during Chief Ebrima’s arrest, it was their turn to edit and produce the paper that week.

Torture
Like most other detainees at the NIA, Chief Ebrima Manneh was seriously tortured by the junglars and the military men after his arrest. The officers who tortured him include the late Captain Musa Jammeh, the late Captain Tumbul Tamba, Captain Sanna Manjang active member of the Junglers and the Armed Forces; Lt . Sang Michael Correa, Modou Jarjue, Alhagie Morr Jobe, and other members of the junglars.
I remember a day when the late Tumbul Tamba told journalist Chief Manneh that he (Tamba) hates journalists and will kill anybody who wants to bring down the government. The late Musa Jammeh once drunken, also displayed and shouted loud on top of his voice and said this government is here to stay and they will crush anyone who tries to challenge them.

Until the time he was moved from the NIA, Chief Manneh had collapsed on several occasions due to his physical weakness. He has also been admitted at the RVTH on several occasions. What happens after he was moved from our custody I cannot say. It is not yet proven that he is dead, or in fact alive after this.

Recommendations
In order to give Journalist Chief Manneh justice and have a fair and balanced trial, the international Human rights organizations including the UN, Amnesty International, ECOWAS Court of justice, and all other stakeholders must make sure that all those who played a role leading to his arrest and detention, as well as torture and possible killing, be brought to book.

These include our CiC President Yahya Jammeh, the arresting agents, the NIA director general at that time Harry Sambou, Neneh Macdouall Gaye, present minister of Foreign Affairs, who was the Minister of Information at the time of Chief Manneh’s arrest, Pa Malick Faye, former colleague of Chief Manneh who was mentioned in the case, Lamin Kujabi, former storekeeper at Observer who was called by Dr Saja Taal to supply the printers with another set of transparent films for printing after the burning of the said printed copies, and Alhagie Mor Jobe, Modou Jarjue, Bora Colley, Sanna Manjang, Sang Michael Correa and his colleague serial killers who dealt with him.

Meanwhile, some of the deceased persons who had hand in Chief Manneh’s case were, the late Dr Saja Taal, Momodou Sanyang, former GRTS managing director, the late Captain Tumbul Tamba, the late Captain Musa Jammeh, etc.

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source www.kaironews.com

Supreme Court frees former naval chief

A five-member panel of judges of the Supreme Court of The Gambia headed by the Chief Justice yesterday set free Rear Admiral Sarjo Fofana, following a judgment delivered on the appeal he filed before the court.

In the same vein, the Supreme Court dismissed Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba’s appeal on count 3 and 4, and discharged and acquitted him on count 1, which was conspiracy to commit treason, and count 2, which was treason.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Gibou Janneh said the appellants were arraigned at the high court on a four-count charge of conspiracy to commit treason, treason, and concealment of treason before Justice J.E. Ikpala.

He said at the closure of the prosecution’s case, the defence opted for a no-case-to-answer submission, which was rejected by the court and the accused persons through their counsel refused to enter into their defence.

The appellants were then convicted by the said court and sentenced on count one, which was conspiracy to commit treason, to 20 years in prison and on count two, which was treason, to another 20 years in prison.

Lang Tombong Tamba was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on count three, which was concealment of treason, and another 10 years in prison on count four, which was treason.

The appellants, not happy with the judgment, through their counsel filed an appeal separately at the court of appeal, which was dismissed.

The appellants further filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.

“Having gone through the appeal filed by the defence and the statement of case filed by the state, the fact is whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant conviction of the appellants,” the judge said.

The prosecution in counts one and two relied on the corroborative evidence of its witnesses, Justice Janneh went on, adding that in his view the trial judge was speculative in his decision.

The trial judge recorded that PW5, Yahya Darboe, was not sworn when testifying and the defence applied for the witness to be treated as a hostile witness.

He said the trial judge missed two legal principles regarding a person to be sworn.

It seemed that the trial judge was not aware of section 125 of the criminal procedure code, and counsel did not also bring it to his attention.

The trial judge having realised the error of Yahya Darboe testifying without being sworn, and no reason was given as to why he was not sworn, ought to have excluded him or not taking into account his evidence, in his judgment regarding the guilt of the appellants.

The trial judge wrongly took the evidence of PW5, Yahya Darboe, who was neither sworn nor examined legally.

There was no evidence connecting Tamba and Fofana in count one and two and Justice Janneh, therefore, allowed the appeal, and acquitted and discharged them in count one and two.

On concealment of treason, there was nothing in exhibit A which corroborated the evidence of PW1, Major Momodou Alieu Bah, adding that what it stated was that Tamba had knowledge of the planned coup.

Apart from admissions in exhibit C, the court had no corroborative evidence to rely on, and had the appellant, Tamba, testified at the closure of the prosecution’s case, the judge would have been convinced.

Justice Janneh further said it was risky and a gamble for the appellant not to give evidence, when the court rejected his no-case-to-answer submission.

He, therefore, held that there was no miscarriage of justice, hence dismissed the appeal on the concealment of treason and affirmed the conviction of the high court.

The appeal of Rear Admiral Sarjo Fofana was allowed, and he was therefore acquitted and discharged.

For Lt General Tamba, he was acquitted and discharged on count one and two, and his appeal on count three and four was dismissed and the conviction of the high court was affirmed.

However, the Chief Justice said the appellant, Lt General Tamba, had knowledge of the planned coup; he therefore dismissed the appeal on counts one and two.

In respect of counts three and four, he agreed that the appeal be dismissed.

He agreed that for Rear Admiral Sarjo Fofana the appeal be allowed, and the appellant be acquitted and discharged.

UDP Is APRC political Cancer

UDP leader greeted by crowds

Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the opposition UDP party has asserted that his party remains well-organised and will work assiduously in order to pull victory at next year’s presidential election.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard against the backdrop of the party’s recent nationwide ‘caravan’ tour, he said: “The UDP is as strong as it ever was and I have always said that before. The problem is that the government does not open us (opposition) access to the state media and they are continually feeding people with propaganda…  so you can barely know our strength if we do not go out on a tour. If we can talk to the whole Gambia through the state radio and television ahead of our meetings and tours around the country like the APRC does, they can never match us in terms of popularity. I want to make it clear that we (UDP) are not flexing muscles; we are just showing the APRC how strong our support base is.

“I would want the UDP to do more of these tours before 2016 presidential elections. In fact, I am going to propose to party executive when we meet that we should do more of this tour but targeting various parts of the country, randomly and I will be also, whenever I have time, going to certain places to see and socialise with our people. We are also going to Foni. At Fass Njaga Choi, I told our executive members that I was not angry with the police. I told them that they (APRC) had intelligence that when we are allowed to go on this tour, it is going to be devastating politically. That was why they denied us the permit to use the Public Address System but they ignored the fact that the law only enjoined us to apply for just the PAS but not to hold a public meeting. Freedom of assembly is an entrenched clause in the Gambian constitution. We were determined to go and speak to the people and there was no way we were going to stop because we were denied to the PAS.

“In fact, at Essau we held our meeting with the PAS and it was a success. The APRC has realised that the UDP is their political cancer and we have eaten so much into their political tissues and they are terminally ill now. If one conducts an opinion poll in this country, Gambians will tell you that, “we are fed-up with this man (President Jammeh)”. It is an insult to Gambians to invite a wrestling champion and give him huge amount of money and brand new cars or call musicians from Mali and other places and give them money. As we speak, there are no medicines at our hospitals and how many children are going to bed without food? These children cannot even have porridge or even left-over rice from people- and they go to school like that.”

Source: Standard News