The Gambia: land of mass incarceration, murder, summary execution and human-sacrifice By Mathew K Jallow “Smiling Coast of West Africa” is the first welcoming characterization that headlines every tourist brochure; the intersection of happy, cheerful and sun-drenched sandy beaches that snake the might Atlantic Ocean coastline as far as the eye can see. But this was Gambia then. Today, it is almost like a journey back in time to the mysterious Aztec civilization and back again to the chilling silence on Pyongyang’s wide empty boulevards. In between, the insignificance of time space is evident in the way in which the Aztec’s human sacrifice has been fused with North Korea’s murderous art of political intimidation. The result is a Gambia where human sacrifice ritual, murder and summary execution combine to link the country to the Aztec’s notorious dark past and North Korea’s under-reported contemporary stories of summary executions and mass incarceration. Yet this week, as the Gambia’s twentieth Attorney General in twenty years continues a long tradition of denial of deadly human rights violations in the Gambia, before the United Nations Universal Periodic Review Working Group in Geneva, still shrouded in mystery is the little known dark-side of Yahya Jammeh’s military rule. The ancient Aztec’s human sacrifice practice, as hard as it is for westerners to believe, is real in Gambia and has existed there since Yahya Jammeh’s military regime took power in 1994. Gambian journalists, for the most part, have deliberately been ambivalent about reporting the regime’s child sacrifice practice for fear of looking ridiculous to western partner organizations and governments. Today, as both the UN Universal Periodic Review and the UN Special Rapporteurs work to piece together the Gambia’s story of extrajudicial summary executions, murders, mass incarceration, intimidation, fear, rape, forced disappearances and exodus of citizens to safe haven in foreign countries over the past two decades, it is fitting to revisit Yahya Jammeh’s bizarre child/human sacrifice practice. It may or may not come as a surprise to our western partners that child/human sacrifice has been used by African societies to achieve success for centuries. In modern times, child/human sacrifice has been used by highly educated Africans on order to amass wealth, secure coveted positions in governments and international institutions, win elections, fend off evil spirits, and to heal physical ailments among others. Needless to say that in Africa, superstitions and shamanism is a billion dollar business, but child/human sacrifice practices prescribed by Shamans and witch-doctors are prevalent among African tribes with lethargic attachment to Christianity and Islam. Yahya Jammeh comes from this background of primitive superstition and idol worship, whose belief system is predicated on spilling animal or human blood as an offering to placate the spirits. In Yahya Jammeh’s case, child/human sacrifice is used to amass wealth and prevent the toppling of his military regime. Of the many children killed by Yahya Jammeh’s motorcades, he never once apologized to parents of any of the dead children and the parents are too scared to report the deaths to the authorities. It has also since come to light that many children are missing from villages surrounding Kanilai, Yahya Jammeh’s home village and his undeclared seat of government. The feeding of infants and children to the white crocodile in Yahya Jammeh’s animal collection might seem far-fetched to the westerner and it comes as no surprise given the incredulity of the act, but what this skepticism confirms is how little the west knows about the dark-side of African culture and religious practice. In most African societies both Christianity and Islam are heavily infused with traditional idol practices as exemplified by the pervasive practice of wearing jujus or magical amulets believed to ward off evil spirits. Among some African tribes, the return home from Sunday Mass service means extending the worship to offering animal blood to idols placed in dark corners of living rooms. Child/human sacrifice aside, in 2009, Yahya Jammeh hired three Guinea Fula witch-doctors to purge Gambia of witches. This led to three agonizing months of relentless witch-hunting exercise around the country in which elder citizens were forced to drink hallucinogen concoctions to expel witches from their souls. It resulted to more than dozen deaths, hospitalization of many even as many more developed permanent physical and mental injuries. And importantly, Yahya Jammeh’s ubiquitous display Islamic religiosity is a farce designed to hoodwink the wealthy Middle East to reward him with financial assistance. Like the recently collapsed Taiwan dollar diplomacy, the Middle East has for many years provided support to Yahya Jammeh; in effect engaging in religious diplomacy in support of the introduction of Sharia Law in secular Gambia. Another feature of Yahya Jammeh’s military regime is the summary executions, some of which have been heard around the world, while the circumstances surrounding others still largely remain mysterious. There has been six major executions since 1994, with the latest occurring in late 2012. i. In November of 1994 dozen military officers, including Basiru Barrow, Dot Faal and others, were summarily executed without trial for an alleged attempt to topple Yahya Jammeh’s new military regime ii. In April 2000, eighteen secondary and high school students were summarily gunned down execution style for the peaceful protest of the rape of a school girl and murder of a school boy at the hands of the police in the city of Brikama iii. In 2005, forty-four Ghanaian migrants to Las Palmas, Spain, were apprehended in Gambian waters, forced to land and executed iv. In September 2012, nine Mile Two Prison prisoners (some believe number is three times higher), were executed before their legal options were exhausted v. In 2012, two elderly brothers opposed Yahya Jammeh’s tribal divisions, were arrested and executed in cold blood in the outskirts of their village. vi. In 2010, former National Security Chief Daba Marenah and more than dozen others were executed for allegedly failing to disclose a plot to topple the military regime Each one of these extrajudicial executions was a tactical effort to instill fear and preempt Yahya Jammeh’s forcible removal from power. Curiously, none of the bodies of all the victims has ever been received by family members in order to give them decent burials according to religious protocols. Gambia’s child/human sacrifice and summary executions are triangulated by the equally bizarre forced disappearances of citizens. The list of known Gambian forced disappearances, after their arrest by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), is believed to be much higher than what is reported, in particular among Yahya Jammeh’s own Jola tribe. The number there remains a mystery and this is in part because the media and opposition politicians are banned from that region, which is fiercely loyal and protective of Yahya Jammeh. This list of forced disappeared include a journalist, an aid workers, local political figures and community leaders. i. Ebrima (Chief) Manneh: arrested July 2006 ii. Kanyiba Kanyi arrested September 2006 iii. Haruna Jammeh arrested in 2005 iv. Marcie Jammeh arrested in 2005 v. Alfusainey Jammeh arrested in 2005 vi. Momodou Lamin Nyassi arrested in 2005 vii. Ndongo M’boob arrested in 2006 viii. Buba Sanyang arrested in 2006 ix. Alieu Lowe arrested in March 2006 x. Sgt. Sam Kambai arrested in 2006 xi. Kebba Secka arrested in 2007 xii. Ebrima Dibba arrested in May 2008 xiii. Ebrima Kunchi Jammeh arrested in May 2008 In between the forced disappearances, summary executions and child/human sacrifices, close to three hundred Gambians have died while others developed mental illnesses behind the walls of the notorious Mile Two Central Prison and other secret detention centers spread like a spider web around the country. The deaths have occurred as a result of malnutrition, sickness, torture and deplorable living conditions as a result of lack of treatment for health conditions. It is an irony that the main trust of the opposition to military regime in Gambia is led by Gambian forced to flee to safer environment by the military regime. In exile, the dissident movement gradually built a robust and civil society infrastructure that is now spearheading the movement to remove Yahya Jammeh’s military regime and replace it with democracy and rule of law. The number if Gambians who fled Gambia in a massive exodus is staggering; from former Vice-President and Finance Minister, B B Dabo, Dr Sedat Jobe, Gambia’s former External Affairs Minister and ex UNESCO director, to the most recent, Dr Gumbo Touray, former Director of International Affairs, University of The Gambia, and Director of Lands, Gambia. In between are thousands of Gambians of all tribal and professional stripes; from journalists, diplomats, former government bureaucrats, academics, disgruntled former senior military officers, lawyers and more. In the process, fifteen civil society organizations and twelve online newspapers and radios have been established across the globe and are at the heading a sustained campaign to return Gambia to its former democratic foundation. Like the poisoning deaths of former regime collaborators to remove witnesses to the regime’s atrocities back in the late 1990s and early 2000, there has been a spate of recent abductions of Gambian dissidents from the streets of Dakar, Senegal, without the government of Senegal’s President Macky Sall demanding the return of both dissident politician Mahawa Cham and businessman Saul Ndow. But in addition, two Gambian born naturalized US citizens, Alhaji Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe, on holiday in the Gambia last year, have since vanished. Their disappearance has since been linked to the regime. Finally, it is understood but yet unverified that the regime is building a state of the art prison complex in the Upper River Rivision of Basse in the eastern end of the country. With prisons and detention centers around the country filled to capacity, the construction of another prison to continue the policy of mass incarceration was a foregone conclusion. Mass incarceration has become the regime’s way of dealing with its momunental failure. Like all dictatorships past and present, what is known to Gambian opponents of military regime and the international community, in terms egregious of human rights violations, is only a tip of the iceberg. But as the UN Human Rights Rapporteurs prepare to visit Gambia on a fact finding mission around the two decades of deadly human rights violations, they should be mindful of the fear of citizens to freely volunteer information to them. Luckily, also helpful in their human rights investigations in Gambia, are exiled former military and security officers who stand ready to provide useful information to the investigators. Mathew K Jallow Adviser, Gambia Consultative Council (GCC) The GCC is a civil society organization that seeks the collaboration of Gambians, like-minded organizations, international institutions and friendly governments around the world in its effort to restore democracy and the rule of law in The Gambia.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:52:57 +0000
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