UN Pressured To Act On Gambia

Amnesty international has made 17 point recommendations to United Nations members expressing concern about The Gambia’s flagrant violation of human rights. The rights group wants the country to either comply with the special rapporteur’s demands or bear the brunt for terrorising ordinary citizens.

AI felt the need to pile pressure on UN members to act fast on The Gambia for violating the special rapporteur’s mission.

At its 28th regular session, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) will consider the report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment on his visit to The Gambia. The visit was jointly undertaken by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions from 3 to 7 November 2014.

Amnesty International commends the Special Rapporteur’s efforts in positively engaging the Gambian authorities and larger civil society. The organisation deplores the government’s decision to deny the Rapporteurs access to the Security Mile 2 Central Prisons, where death-row prisoners and others sentenced to long prison terms are held.

That decision demonstrated again the government’s blatant disregard for cooperation in the field of human rights. The Special Rapporteurs noted in their Preliminary Findings that this restriction was imposed despite the government’s written agreement to the Terms of Reference of the two mandates.

Amnesty International is concerned that the government’s unwillingness to cooperate with international monitors is a striking contradiction with The Gambia government’s own commitment made during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Gambia to “continue in its endeavour to promote and protect human rights in the country”.

Amnesty International urges the HRC, its members and observer states to do the following:

Condemn the Gambian government’s blatant failure to respect the Special Rapporteurs’ Terms of Reference, thereby undermining their investigation;

To establish an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the December 2014 attempted coup and related human rights violations, including investigations into arrests and other forms of repression.

Call on Gambia to:
Constructively engage with the Special Rapporteurs and act on their recommendations without delay;

Desist from reprisals and intimidation against persons cooperating with the UN in the field of human rights;

Improve the conditions of detention in all places of detention and ensure that prisoners and detainees have access to medical care, adequate and appropriate food, hygiene and exercise;

Investigate all allegations of torture or other ill-treatment and hold to account the individuals responsible;

Ensure that information obtained under torture is not allowed in any proceedings;

Establish an independent mechanism that promptly and effectively investigates all allegations of torture or ill-treatment;

Establish a permanent moratorium on executions, with a view to abolition, commute all death sentences, and ensure that prisoners on death row enjoy fully their right to seek clemency;

Ensure that all prisoners on death row have access to their lawyers and families;

Immediately end the policy of continued harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and torture of people due to their perceived sexual orientation and of human rights defenders, journalists, political activists, and their families;

Repeal legislation that restricts freedom of expression inconsistently with human rights standards, i.e. the Criminal Code (2014) amendment, the Information and Communication (amendment) Act 2013 and the Criminal Code (amendment) Act 2013;

Comply and implement expediently the judgements of the ECOWAS Court of Justice; and

Ratify human rights treaties, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance

For the complete article click link below:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr27/1100/2015/en/

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Bed-ridden Tycoon Denied Family Access

NIA DG Yankuba Badjie

National spy agents have reported to have denied the detained bed-ridden tycoon access to his family.

Alh. Kebba Touray is among hundreds of people currently being detained in a country that marked 50 years of nationhood last week.

“The Golden Jubilee celebration means nothing to anyone denied due process or justice,” one man groaned in Banjul. “Independence is all about attaining freedom but we lost that freedom since 1994. Our founding fathers did not fight so their sick offspring be detained arbitrarily,” he said, referring to the case of Mr. Touray who remains illegally detained at the National Intelligence Agency headquarters in Banjul. The Banjul native tycoon has so far spent a month in state custody.

In a dramatic twist, spy agents have now denied Mr. Touray access to his family, which also violates his constitutional rights in an independent Gambia. “We have not been allowed to see him, let alone provide him food and clothing,” a close family source told Kairo News.

The Gambia government remains tight-lipped on the current wave of illegal arrest and detention, especially after the December 30th failed coup d’etat. Families of detained relatives have not been informed about the reasons. All these desperate families have been searching for answers but without success.

Mr. Touray’s family is deeply worried about the frailing health condition of a man who has been bed-ridden for six months.

This is the second time Mr. Touray is having a brush with the goverment. In 2009, he was briefly detained shortly after Lt. Gen. Lang Tombong Tamba, the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF), and the others were detained for attempting to dislodge President Jammeh from power. 

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Did GMC Leader Mai Fatty Blink?

GMC offers ‘standing ovation’ to President Jammeh

The party leader of Gambia Moral Congress (GMC), Mai Ahmad Fatty, has commended President Yahya Jammeh for his “solemn executive pronouncement” forgiving Gambians abroad who might have wronged him and for proposing reconciliation outreach to them, saying they are all Gambians who are free to return home and participate in the national construction and socio-economic development taking place in The Gambia.

In a press release sent yesterday to The Point, GMC party leader Mai Fatty stated: “GMC welcomes the President’s proposed reconciliation outreach to Gambians in the Diaspora contained in his recent interview with the DG of GRTS, Mr Kebba Dibba.

This initiative is in consonance with our previous calls for national reconciliation and political dialogue involving all political stakeholders, both at home and in the Diaspora.

Therefore, GMC strongly supports this gesture and further praises President Jammeh’s political courage and goodwill in effectively engaging those he may have considered his arch political adversaries.

A hallmark of pragmatic leadership is the capacity to harness and work with all shades of divergent opinions, with the ability to objectively dissociate issues from personality.

Reconciliation must not be an end in itself. It should aim at serving the overriding national interests. It should not be symbolic or paternalistic. It should not be a trap to horde, traffic perceived opponents back to the country or a ploy to attract and assemble a significant community of non-conformist diasporans within the country, to neutralize or obliterate them using pre-planned judicial processes against them or systematic heavy-handed law enforcement persecution.

Like most Gambians, GMC is encouraged in assuming the President’s sincerity by virtue of the strong moral and spiritual justification or rationale provided by himself.

Rightly, we too subscribe to the President’s understanding of the Holy Quran that to aspire for Allah’s forgiveness, a good Muslim and a good Muslim leader like him should contain the capacity to forgive.

It is now imperative that the President’s strong moral and spiritual relevance that guided his deliberate pronouncement, be solidified into an effective political policy framework, the implementation of which would in practice be reflected not only in governance but openly and verifiably applied by the entire government machinery.

Sincerity, which was publicly assured by President Jammeh to the hearing and sight of his fellow Muslim citizenry, requires it’s unconditionally as an imperative Islamic component. That is why the President publicly appointed the Supreme Islamic Council the national mediating role.

In implementing this highly unexpected conduct, GMC offers a standing ovation to President Jammeh.

Beyond reconciliation efforts extended specifically to the Diaspora, it is imperative for national political dialogue to take place on issues such as the electoral reforms, amnesty to political detainees and prisoners, rule of law discrepancies, etc.

GMC encourages the government to take a positive, bold new initiative on these issues. We undertake to support and complement government’s efforts on these matters as a responsible national opposition. This is because it falls within our stated competence of supporting and working with the government on areas of common moral or policy convergence such as these.

Our constitutional role as a government-in-waiting is not simply to oppose every government policy, action or conduct for the sake being an opposition. Rather it is proper and mandatory to accord national interests pre-eminently, to openly support government when national interest demands, and to offer concrete divergence when in our estimation such interests equally require.

When a serious leader seizes the rare opportunity making a solemn pronouncement on the occasion of a national milestone, it is taken seriously by all citizens and the world at large. A serious leader does not make frivolous statements or utterances he has no intention of honouring. That is not only unIslamic or satanic but outright treacherous and unpatriotic.

All Gambians both at home and abroad and the international community GMC look forward to the rapid, full unconditional translation of the solemn Executive pronouncement from mere words to verifiable concrete action.”

Source: Picture: Mai Ahmad Fatty, GMC

Source: The Point

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Gambian Turns 50

Sir Dawda Jawara led The Gambia to independence

By Momodou Ndow

The idea of fighting for Independence, gaining it, and self-rule sounds pretty romantic, right? But as Gambia celebrates 50 years of Independence, I’m not looking at the “romantic” aspect, but the “reality” aspect instead. Where are we after 50 years? That is the question.

Some argue that we should all be patriotic and celebrate Gambia for her beauty and culture in her 50th year of nationhood, and not ask questions or utter unfavorable comments. But is that what celebrating our Independence means? First, let’s look at what Independence means. Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. Second, what does it mean to be patriotic? Patriotism literally means to have love and devotion for country, which is subject to interpretation, depending on who you ask.

If by “country” you mean nature – rivers, rocks, beaches, majestic mountains, and the like, then that’s not patriotism for me. That belongs to nature and almost every country has a nice collection of rocks, rivers, beaches and mountains or hills. If that is what patriotism means, then Gambia have precious little we can claim and show massive love for, because I have seen prettier out there. And would anyone give up their life for a beach or river? Certainly not!

Patriotism is not a blind trust in anything our leaders tell us or do either, that would constitute a “mindless goose-stepping syndrome.” Waving or posting the flag can be a sign of patriotism, but that’s only outward, so let’s not cheapen the term by suggesting that it’s more than just an outward sigh. I have seen and heard Gambians express a feeling of something we superficially call “patriotism”, so the question then must be asked – what is this thing, anyway? Is it so cheap that and meaningless that a simple gesture of waving or posting a flag makes you patriotic?

In my little book, I subscribe to a patriotism deeply rooted in the reasons we sought Independence and the idea of good self-governance, not culture or scenery. Self-governance must include the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are unalienable rights endowed to man by God. The role of government is to protect the peace, our property, and preserve liberties, and doing so with the consent of the people. It’s the right of a free people to resist a government that has become abusive and destructive, as part of the laws of nature. To me, this plays a huge role in the meaning of patriotism.

But my question still remains: Where are we after 50 years of Independence? With that, I now leave you with the National Anthem.

For The Gambia, our homeland
We strive and work and pray,
That all may live in unity,
Freedom and peace each day.
Let justice guide our actions
Towards the common good,
And join our diverse peoples
To prove man’s brotherhood.
We pledge our firm allegiance,
Our promise we renew;
Keep us, great God of nations,
To The Gambia ever true.
Momodoundow.blogspot.com

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CHADIAN troops have won another major victory in the ongoing battle against Boko Haram

CHADIAN troops have won another major victory in the ongoing battle against Boko Haram by recapturing the town of Dikwa in Borno State from the terrorists after a major battle during which hundreds of insurgents were killed.

Over recent weeks, Chad has come to Nigeria's aid by providing 2,500 troops as part of a Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to flush out the insurgents. Made up of troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger Republic and Nigeria, the MNJTF is being deployed in Nigeria to take on the terrorists.

By far the most efficient of all the armies, the Chadian troops have already taken the towns of Malam Fatori and Gamboru from the terrorists and in another incursion into Nigerian territory, they secured a major victory yesterday. About 50km south of the border, Dikwa, a historic town, which was once the capital of the old Kanem Bornu Empire, was a Boko Haram stronghold from where it launched attacks across the area.

Local resident Bababura Diwa, said: “Chadian soldiers took over Dikwa from Boko Haram after heavy fighting on Tuesday. When they came into Dikwa there was intense fighting but at last they subdued the Boko Haram fighters.

“They killed many of them, including Abu Ashshe, their commander who was notorious for seizing cattle in the area. I used the opportunity provided by the presence of the Chadian troops to leave the town as I was afraid to leave when Boko Haram took over the town for fear of being branded a traitor and killed.”

He added that  the Chadians came from Gamboru, which they previously recaptured, with heavy artillery power and overpowered a group of militants at Lomani village, 15 km from Dikwa. Jidda Saleh, another local resident, said Chadian troops launched heavy aerial and ground attacks on the Kala-Balge area, particularly Nduwu village, which he said was a major Boko Haram stronghold.

Mr Saleh said: “The whole village was bombarded and it is obvious Boko Haram suffered heavy casualties from the aerial attack. Ground troops moved in later.”

According to Mr Saleh, Meleri, which has a huge Boko Haram concentration camp, was also bombed by Chadian military jets and then taken over by ground troops. He pointed out that by the time he left, he learnt the Chadian soldiers were on their way to Kushimori village where Boko Haram keep the livestock they seize from people.

“They have kept thousands of livestock there and have sunk boreholes and recruited people to rear the animals for them," Mr Saleh said.  Algoni Wal-Amire, another Kala-Balge resident, welcomed the offensive.

“Living under Boko Haram was like living in a minefield. You are always afraid your next step could be your last, so I thank God I’m now safe from them,” he added.

Unlike Nigerian troops who are afraid to take on Boko Haram and abandon their weapons and flee when the terrorists attack, Chadian troops are said to be fiercely brave. Chad's army is also free from infiltration by Boko Haram whereas in Nigeria, Boko Haram has a lot of sympathisers in the military.

source:http://www.nigerianwatch.com/

CIA and Mossad are behind Boko Haram and ISIL, says Sudan president

The President of Sudan has warned that the fight against jihadist extremism must engage militants on an ideological level, and not solely concentrate on military action against them.

Omar al-Bashir was speaking exclusively to euronews in the week that ISIL released a video purporting to show the execution of 21 Egyptian citizens – an act that spurred Egypt into launching airstrikes againstISIL targets in neighbouring Libya.

“Our policy has been largely succesful, after we arrest these young people we bring a group of young scholars to engage in dialogue with them about their thoughts, and we succeed to bring a lot of them back from their radical ideas”.He warned that simply using violence against young radicals who fight with organisations like ISIL and al-Qaeda could lead to even more extremism.

Omar al-Bashir said that America’s CIA and Israel’s Mossad are behind group Boko Haram and ISIL.

“I said CIA and the Mossad stand behind these organisations. There is no Muslim who would carry out such acts.”

The full interview will be broadcast on The Global Conversation on euronews tomorrow, Wednesday (February 17)
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Gambia’s Independence Means A Lot

 

 

The leader of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) believes The Gambia’s independence means a lot, despite the current unfortunate state of affairs which makes it disheartening to talk about anything positive.
Lawyer Ousainou Darboe’s message – contained in his party’s 50th Golden Jubilee Message – recognises the “positives and laudable achievements we gain as an independent nation is attaining full custody of our own affairs. Some may today take that as something irrelevant, insignificant, however, nothing is worst in life than letting strangers running the affairs of your nation.”
Read below Mr. Darboe’s full message:
18 February 1965 saw the Union Jack lowered and the Gambian flag raised. We became a nation that is called The Gambia. Britain did not believe that The Gambia will survive as a nation. For some 18 February 1965 is only significant as a day marking “the birth of an improbable nation”.
But here we are today celebrating 50 years of nationhood. As we celebrate 50 years of nationhood we must congratulate and pay tribute to those who led us to independence, those men and women who with dedication and determination laid a solid foundation for nation building.
Let us congratulate ourselves for establishing parastatals that have contributed and continue to contribute to the socio-economic advancement of The Gambia.
Let us on this day reflect on what we have achieved in the past 50 years and consolidate our gains. We must also look at ourselves critically and constructively to discover our failures and shortcomings and avoid the negative incidents that have restarted our efforts to reach our set goals.
Let us all today rededicate ourselves to combating poverty, ensuring better health delivery system, improved educational standard, a trusted legal institutions, a viable and sustainable agricultural system fit for purpose and the creation of an environment that is conducive to political pluralism. Today each Gambian must make a pledge to do something however little that will make The Gambia a model for others.
I congratulate the leadership both past and present and every Gambian on this great national birthday.
As we celebrate a milestone in our country’ independence, let us all take pride in the sweat and tears of our forefathers. The land that is The Gambia is situated such that, our existence was deemed as unviable, a country that cannot by any stretch continue to exist as an independent nation.
The British colonial masters demarcated The Gambia in such a way; we are left at the mercy of the Francophone Senegal. We became sandwiched in the belly of another independent nation, a nation that speaks a totally different official language.
When Africa commentators at the time of our independence opined that, we will be an ‘improbable nation’, they never factor in the resoluteness, doggedness and tenacity of the people of our beloved nation.
50 years of nationhood is something every citizen in the Gambia should be proud of. The struggle to see that, we became an independent nation from Great Britain brought forth the realisation that, colonialism was a crime against our people, against our humanity and heritage.
The Gambia’s independence means a lot, and due to the current unfortunate state of affairs, it is disheartening to talk about anything positive. The positives and laudable achievements we gain as an independent nation is attaining full custody of our own affairs. Some may today take that as something irrelevant, insignificant, however, nothing is worst in life than letting strangers running the affairs of your nation.
Colonialism was a dehumanising exercise, a superiority complex matrix that allowed western nations to export their values and way of lives on others they occupy a completely different region with. It inflicts a deeper and lasting scar, the imposition of western superiority and an indirect blow to the self-confidence and assurances of the colonised. Thus, the statement of Thomas Greer is true “All the new nations faced severe problems, for political independence did not automatically bring them prosperity and happiness…they were seldom free of external influences. They were still bound to…structures developed earlier by the colonial powers.”
However, for The Gambia, labouring on the difficulties and impacts of colonialism will be less relevant if placed in the larger context of the present dilemma for all democratic loving Gambians. The 50 years celebrations, marking the Golden Jubilee today to many Gambians is a savoury taste since in the last 20 years the Gambia has experienced a difficult political existence.
The 50 years of our nation’s celebration cannot be a joyous affairs wholly until such a day, when Gambians can bridge the political divide, mend fences, never allowed political differences to epic into hatred. Gambians will celebrate much more jubilantly when fear rule is no more, the freedom and peace of mind Gambians enjoyed in the first Republic became a reality once more, however with a different dimension and spectrum.
By this, we mean with responsibility and dedication to preventing the public space falling into wrong hands. The 50 years golden jubilee acting as a catalyst for inward scrutiny from political leaders, civil society activist, the media and Gambians at large. In this day, the United Democratic Party remembers the many Gambians who are suffering persecutions due to political reasons, we remember Gambians who are missing, Gambians who are in jail, Gambians who are inflicted with the harshness of a constricted political environment, Gambians who are in exile, Gambians feeling the pains and brunt of the hard economic environments in this Golden Jubilee. Our thoughts are with every single Gambians crying in silence.
Long live The Gambia, long live our peaceful co-existence, long live the UDP and long live the determination to survive against all odds.
Thank you.
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