(JollofNews) – The United States Government of President Donald Trump has severely criticised the former Gambian regime of President Yahya Jammeh over its treatment and lack of respect for the rights and liberties of Gambians.
Mr Jammeh who governed the Gambia for 22 years was booted out power in January 2017 after a shock defeat in the presidential election by opposition candidate Adama Barrow. He is currently living in exile in Equatorial Guinea with his wife and family as part of a deal brokered by regional group, Ecowas.
But in its 2016 annual Human Rights and Labour Report, the Trump Administration said during Mr Jammeh’s last year in power, his regime committed many human rights abuses with impunity including enforced disappearances, arrest, torture and murder of political opponents thereby creating a more restrictive environment for Gambians in the country including journalists and government critics.
It said although the Gambian constitution and laws prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, there were reports there were several reports Mr Jammeh’s government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
The report cited the death in police custody of Solo Sandeng, organising secretary of the United Democratic Party (UDP) as an example. It said Mr Sandeng was arrested on 14th April 2016 and reportedly tortured to death by members of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for leading a peaceful protest demanding “proper electoral reform.” It said Nogoi Njie, one of the incarcerated protesters, said she saw Sandeng at NIA headquarters on April 14 “completely naked, flat on the ground, badly beaten, his body swollen, and bleeding profusely.”
It also cited the death in custody of Ebrima Solo Krummah, UDP deputy chairman of the Sandu Darsilami constituency who was arrested, tortured and denied medical treatment after his arrest on 9th May 2016, along with several other UDP members.
The report said like in previous years, there were reports of politically motivated disappearances last year. It cited the abduction on April 14 and April 16 of Sanusi Sanyang, a UDP supporter by men in civilian clothes.
It added that although torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment is prohibited by the constitution and laws of the Gambia, there were reports that security forces last year tortured, beat, and mistreated persons in custody.
It cited the arrest in May 2016 of three men who were charged with sedition after they allegedly said in a private conversation overheard by a government official that President Jammeh disliked the Mandinka ethnic group. The report said the men’s lawyer said told a magistrates’ court that they were physically and psychologically tortured, threatened with electric shock, and held at gunpoint to compel them to sign statements of guilt written by the police.
It also cited the arrest in April 2016 of opposition activist Nogoi Njie by security officers for taking part in an unauthorized’ protest. The report said Ms Njie specified in affidavit that she was handcuffed and beaten with hoses and batons while water was poured over her and that she was threatened with death.
The Trump administration further added that prison conditions under Mr Jammeh’s regime were harsh and potentially life threatening due to food shortages, gross overcrowding, physical abuse, and inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care.
It said prison cells were overcrowded, damp, and poorly ventilated and inmates complained of poor sanitation and food, and occasionally of having to sleep on the floor.
The report cited the case of one female prisoner who reported that she was held in a cell that often experienced total darkness for long periods at night and was often subject to electrical shocks due to faulty wiring in the cell, a situation that was not addressed.
The Trump Administration said the Gambian security services is corrupt and ineffective and operates with impunity.
It added that while Gambian law requires authorities to obtain a warrant before arresting a person, police officers often arrested individuals without a warrant and detain them beyond the constitutional 72- hours without charge or informing detainees promptly of charges against them.
It noted that although there was a functioning bail system in the country, prosecutors customarily opposed applications for bail for detainees charged with misdemeanours and ordered lengthy adjournments to allow additional time to prepare their cases.
It added that judges and magistrates sometimes set bail bonds at unreasonably high amounts and some offenders who are released on bail by the courts often gets rearrested by police or other law enforcement personnel as they leave the courts to provide the prosecution more time to prepare cases.
It said over the past year, officials did not allow detainees prompt access to a lawyer or family members and the government has failed to repeal military decrees enacted prior to the adoption of the constitution which give the NIA and the interior minister broad powers to detain individuals indefinitely without charge “in the interest of national security.”
The Trump Administration said while the constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press; the Jammeh regime restricted these rights and the environment for independent and opposition media was hostile, with numerous obstacles to freedom of expression, including administrative hurdles, arbitrary arrest and detention, intimidation and judicial harassment against journalists, and the closure of media outlets, leading to self-censorship.
It said until the demise of Mr Jammeh’s regime, local journalists were harass and detained while numerous media outlets perceived to be critical of the government were shut down.
Too late…so whats fresh ?
What I understand from this statement is: all what was said about the Jammeh regime BY THE MEDIA , PEOPLE, VICTIMS, were actually not true until when Trump Government said it or to better say it; validated it. That’s what this implies to me……..so if Trump Administration had said Jammeh Administration had chemical weapon, we would have nodded too and say yes…….we are yet to decolonise our system…..of course i am not advocate the rhetoric of anti Trump or anti west. ..but we need to decolonise our system seriously……..
What are you talking about decolonise mr Omar lamine, I think some guys are simply out of their minds.
Donald Trump is the most abashed president the USA has ever elected. He who listens to him is as foolish as he is!
You believe jammeh did not committed any crimes babu soli.
Babu Soli
This is not about anybody listening to Donald Trump, but is about listening to the United States government’s report on the abuses of rights under Jammeh dictatorship.The killings,rapes, disappearances and the illegal detentions of countless Gambians. You used one sentence to sweep that report under the carpet as you always do and used a whole essay to condemn Fatoumata Tambajang on unsubstantiated allegations. Babu Soli is a man of contradictions. See or hear no evil when it comes to Jammeh and his government, but evil,corruption, ineptness when it comes to Barrow’s government. Why this dishonesty Babu? Is your judgement still clouded by tribal hatred and bigotry or just ranting for the sake of it?
I am baffled by you so called concerned Gambians who bring nothing to the table but grudges and unsubstantiated allegations and sometimes outright lies peddled from the dark gutters of your imperialist protectors. We don’t need you guys to teach us anything regarding good governance as the only thing you championed is dictatorship of the worst kind. Yahya Jammeh and his government subjugated our people to the worst dictatorship of our times and unscrupulous and classless educated elites like yourself who still can’t acknowledge the wrongs done to our people, even though you don’t have to look far to see the damage those wrongs did to families who still going around looking for their loved ones dead or alive. Babu Soli! You and your village idiot friend Sidi Bojang are not human because you lacked what we called empathy. Heartless little men full of hatred but you will never win, because your hatred is what will eventually destroy you.
Long Live President Barrow and his government.
Natty Dread, USA needs to clean up it’s own front and backyard before they start accusing any country in the world about human rights, USA has the worst human rights record in the world, Natty Dread your crazy man, you need to go and Google “USA human rights abuses” and then go and Google the “great Yahya human rights abuses”, then come back and tell me which one took the longest to read?
Grim Reaper
Facts will be facts whether they are told by you,me,America or who. The facts are there were countless human right abuses during the 22 years of Jammeh’s misrule and no deflection tactic will wash that away. This discourse is not about America but our dear homeland raped,abused and robbed by Jammeh and his evil cohorts. This discourse is about the death in detention of prominent Gambians, the disappearances with trace, the pilfering of our meager resources, the abrogation of our constitution etc, etc.This discourse is about how we can all contribute in creating a free and progressive society in our homeland for all irrespective of tribe,religion or gender.
Natty Dread, okay you win, so what do you suggest we all do to creating a free and progressive society in our homeland
Any African or GAMBIAN who takes pride and a lap around the the National Stadium or better yet the “Bantaba”, because of what Donald Trump, an avid Racist, Facist, and White Supremacists, not unlike Boris Johnson of Britain, TRUELY needs to exam his or her Head for a loose Screw or Missing Marble. The truoble with some Africans and GAMBIANS in particular is that, they would Sleep with the Devil as long as the Devil feeds them with Subterfuge and empty words of Support against a perceived enemy. What has Donald Trump done or said during his Presidential Campaign and after Has Donald Trump invested in Africa Proper?. No. Has he ever been a friend of Africa? No. Had he ever spoken positive of any African country? No. Nothing. Donald Trump’s politics is as DESPOTIC and Undemocratic as the any the the World has to Offer in recent memory. Africa is nothing to Donald Trump and his Nationalists Alt-Right Neo-Nazis. Africa and the Gambia is in the Rareview Mirror of Donald Trump and his Supremacists, Jim Crow Cohorts. None of Donald Trump’s inner Circle can tell you where in the World Gambia is located on a World Map or care what happens to any of us. We must endeavor to know Cynicism and Platitudes from a such a “Toubab” who will just a soon sell you to the highest bidder than be a True Partner in Developing the Gambia. I pray and hope the Ousainou Darbo and Mai Fatty Regime are a bit more intelligent than they have so far exhibited. I dream of the day when their Enablers would demonstrate some wider and in-depth knowledge of the Art of Diplomacy without Swallowing the Horse shit being Served to them. Swallowing Platitudes, and Flattery Horse shit from a President bent on an Isolationist, Nationalist Economic and Political Agenda that is Sustained by Racist and White Supremacists Believes and Ideology, should not be taken Seriously for more longer than the Echo following the Speech. Let’s grow up Politically and Biologically and learn how to tie and hold up our “Chaya”, while we Chew the Cola-nut at the same time. Hands off Gambia. Donald Trump is the last person even any one of a Pea size brain should be paying attention to. He is a Fraud Personified. Period.
Dear, dear, Natty Dread. Please Simmer down boy. You are going to hurt yourself for trying to think Critically and Lucidly. Your brain, if you had any, Cannot handle such a Task. It has been fried by the you know what… Being in the Field of Social Welfare, I am careful to diagnose a Potential Client I have not met, but given your AKA, One can deduce that you are a Work in progress, in Search of Self. Lacking any sense of Self-actualisation, identify or direction, you lached on to anything that rolls along your direction. Any African or GAMBIAN who takes an Avid Racist and Supremacists like Donald Trump with his Cohorts of Jim Crow Planter and Plantation Mentality, Needs to see a Psychiatrist. if that does not work, please enquire about a Lobotomy. The later may be more for Natty Dread AKA John Doe in Search of Self.
Sidi Bojang
The village idiot is at it again,the petty little man with his old ”skool” grammar. Natty dread have more accomplishment than your feeble head can comprehend. I don’t brag and not into pomposity but i can tell you that you will soil yourself Sidi Bojang if you know who really is Natty Dread. In the mean time i will allow you to continue with your unfulfilled and sad life of bitterness and regrets.
The issue here is not about Donald Trump and none in our camp give a hoot about Donald Trump, but petty little man Sidi Bojang is just using diversion tactics to change the subject matter, which is the right abuses under dictator Jammeh.
The only individual i know in these discourse that need a psychiatrist is Sidi Bojang as all your analytical arguments are sick based,incomprehensible, twisted,fabricated and ill conceived. I don’t think i should actually use my precious time to answer to somebody of your ilk, a confused petty little man void of all sense of reality.
Bark Sidi Bark as that is what mad rabid dogs do before they get the vet’s mercy injection of death.
By the way i am a lady so address me with thus… She/Her.
Natty Dread, if “ladies” talk from the bottom part of their anatomy mistaken for for their mouth, I would hate to see what the “B” word ones. Simmer down fellow or are you both?
Sidi Village idiot Bojang
Continue barking Sidi as that’s all you can do. The Kanilai fiefdom is gone and is never coming back. Your bitterness that ravaged your body and mind from the tip of your hair down to your testicles via your anal cavity oozing through your mouth as bile,waste,hubris,twisted and fabricated ain’t gonna cowed me. Natty Dread still think that you are an idiot who tried hard to be cool by being pompous with old ”skool” incomprehensible grammar,but you ain’t cool and will never be. You bring nothing to the table but grudges,hate and twisted narratives just to satisfy your bruised ego, an ego badly bruised with the fall and disintegration of the Jola hegemony championed by the worst dictator of our time.
You could start by releasing your self from the IMF.
For whom did all those millions benefit?
But anyone any single person apart of his family in this planet trust this man? Nooo I don’t think!!!!
Sidi Bojang, Grim Reaper and Peace,
Thanks for putting Comrade/Camarada Natty Dread on the right track. S/He is the straight-jacket neocolonialist enabler, those who believe we (Africans) still have to be a subdued people and live under the supremacist ideologies of outsiders.
S/He fails to consider that we have a lot to say, give and instruct based on our vast experiences in a world we know MORE than her/him.
The dichotomy in all her/his postings are the double standard arguments: at one time calling on Barrow to return the corruptible gifts he received from Dakar and next coming to defend Fatoumatta Tambajang who received BRIBES from Africell to allow them continue receiving the millions of dalasi bonuses from international calls. The link was Fatoumatta Tambajang’s incompetent daughter working at the highest Africell position without qualifications. Where are the truth and faith in Natty Dread?
The Barrow corruptible gifts will NEVER be returned no matter how the Barrow enablers enthuse him to do so. Fatoumatta Tambajang will never return the $2 million BRIBE money no matter what Barrow says. After all, all the instances that instruct them to do so will be RUBBISHED aside. The present “government” is just corrupt, inept and incompetent.
Those who side with Donald Trump are as evil as Trump, the US KU Klux Klan and all the supremacist organizations and individuals who believe that the USA was created and developed without other people’s labour and knowledge.
Tell Natty that we hold no rancour against anybody but we just want to put the records straight based on historical relics. This is what the American people(most especially Donald Trump) want to forget. And it couldn’t be forgotten nor sidelined. The good and imaginative people of the world will fight to halt the stupid and crazy demands of Trump because the country he’s ruling built her socio-economic and political pillars on the strength and might of IMMIGRANTS. THAT’S THE HISTORICAL FACT!
Babu Soli
Natty Dread is just asking for acknowledgement from you and your village idiot friend with old ”Skool” grammar Sidi Bojang that there were right abuses during the 22 years of Jammeh’s misrule, rather than only see what is wrong with this government of 2 months.Balance and fair discourse based on facts not twisted assertions or outright lies as is always in your cases. If you hold no rancour against anybody then how can you justify calling President Barrow semi educated when his predecessor actually have little or no education to say the least. How can you voice dissent against corruption levied against those in this government when corruption was the order of the day in the previous government. When a pauper’s son can become a billionaire in a poor country of ours within 22 years. Where was Jammeh’s wealth came from? Babu is a man of contradictions, a myopic self defeating traitor.
Babu Soli, Don’t mention it. No sweat at all. Keep up the good Work of keeping the Record Straight for idiots such as Natty Dread and fellow travelling companions.
Stay Strong.
The Donald’s got baggage; lots of it’s unpleasant too, but that doesn’t sanitise Jammeh’s filth. To use Donald’s unwanted baggage to deflect and distract from revelations of Jammeh’s poor human rights record, is disgraceful.
Yes, let’s criticise Donald Trump for his wrong policies and utterances, but let’s also criticise Jammeh for the “crimes” as revealed by US Government. One’s bad behaviour should not masque another’s.
It’s those instances you and I agree. Liberals. All is not lost for Gambia.
Remember our unity, peace, security, and justice is the foundation of a lasting development and the reinforcement of our democracy. We should do our best to defeat CORRUPTION, without which we are bound to fail
I am not disputing what the great Yahya has done, yes he has done some bad, but it’s the law of the jungle, but who the hell is the USA and even the UK to judge anyone when they have the worst track record themselves, how many people has the commander in chief of USA, Donald Trump killed directly or indirectly everyday women and children in Iraq, Syria etc, etc, since he’s been in power, or that doesn’t count, why don’t the USA go and do a report on that? As the great Yahya said, it’s one rule for them and a different rule for us.
Grim Reaper
Calling Yahya Jammeh great is an insult to our collective intelligence as a nation and people. By the way who created the jungle you are talking about? Is our country a jungle now? Stop this hubris now for God sake.We are not dealing with any other nation here but our own, so i don’t understand why a sudden deviation from that to UK or United States. Yahya Jammeh and his government killed,raped,abused and pilfered our nation and i don’t think anybody need United States government report to know that fact.
Charity begins at home Grim Reaper. Deal with issues closer to home before preaching about others.
Natty Dread, “Deal with issues closer to home before preaching about others.” That’s exactly what I’m telling you Trump should do!
“Law or rule of the jungle”, is a phrase. Looked it up, it will do you no harm!
Natty Dread, if my rural childhood background is seen by you as a Negative, I see it as a Positive. It instilled in me a Sense of Work Ethic, Fair play, and Fearless Devotion to “tell it, like it is”. It is a Rural and Village “gift” you would not understand. It is a rural background President who brought Modernity and Infrastructural development to the Gambia. Uplifted the many, instead of the few. Decentralized development and Demystified the Presidency, Government and its Bureaucracy by making it Accessible to the Once Marginalized and Neglected Economic and Social Strata. I am sorry to say, but the Wannabe “City Slickers” have yet to deliver anything to the Gambia worth mentioning. I will have the Village Self reliance, honesty, integrity and work ethic anyday, instead of the Steaming parasitic urban jungle of your Nocturnal Dreams, mistaken for Reality. Waje up. Without Villagers and Villages, and their Productive Capacity and Sustaining Fountain of Agriculture and Gardening Produce, your Confused and landless barren waste land of a human soul would not endure. I have not spent a complete day in the Village in more than 38 years since being uprooted from my Nurturing and Sustaining Village. Oh! How I long for a time of my childhood in that Fresh air and morning Dew Scent of wild flowers mixed with the the promise of Fruits and Vegetables yet to be Harvested. This is what built the Great Civilizations of the Americas, Europe and the Great Civilizations of Africa before the Scramble for Africa. How can I expect you to know any of this, when you do not know who or what you are. It is Idiotic and embecile like behaviour to believe that I would be negatively affected by the Villager in me. You are gloriously mistaken. I am proud of it and energized by its roots firmly entrenched in my being. The question is, who are you? Or what are you? I very much doubt that you know. Your lot, are the lost wondering village vagabonds and later day refugees of the Concrete Steaming Jungle of a Defunct Babylon. Respect yourself, “Man” or “Madame” “Natty Dread”, Whoever and Whatever you are. When you find yourself and happen to know what or who you are, come back to reveal yourself. Until then, I must bid you farewell, Joe or Jane Doe?
Sidi N.
Bojang, I agree with you, country living is the best, in harmony with nature.
Grim reaper, thank you. Let’s keep the “Disloyal Opposition” Honest and Factual. They’re Disloyal to Gambia and the Gambian People by Virtue of “Contracting” Gambian Democracy and Souvereignity to Senegal and Macky Sall. The Senegalese Operatives under the Umbrella of ECOMIG is Nothing but a Private Army for the UDP Cabal and Mai Fatty to Use as an Intimidating and Repressive Force both in the Gambia and Cassamance. Gambia is being taken back to the 1981 Betrayal of the Gambia and Gambians by David/Dauda Jawara’s Regime following the attempted failed Coupe. They sold the Gambia then, and are again Hell bent on another repeat Sale of Gambia to the Highest bidder. All True Gambian Patriots should Resist this Treasonous Acts. The Disloyal Opposition are already up to their Narrow Ethnic Group Subterfuge at the Expense of the Gambian People. It must Not be left Unchallenged. Gambia is more than One Individual, One Ethnic Group and Region. One Gambia, One People, One Destiny.
Natty,
That’s the bone of contention. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. You hate President Jammeh, I love him. He’s criminal to you, he’s my hero and patriot. He did bad in The Gambia according to your consideration, he developed the Gambia from virtual stagnation and decadence to my consideration. We’ll always differ. You have your school of thought, I have mine. Why can’t you come along with me?
Your bitty “coalition” government is inept, corrupt and incompetent. Why are they mute on the number of people who died on 18th February 2017 at the Independence stadium at Barrow’s “inauguration”? Any probes/investigations into negligence? Why are they silent about the 20- million-dalasi Independence expenditure? Why are they silent about the amount of money spent on defraying costs at the hotel/office? Why are they silent about the money spent in bringing Barrow and his entourage from Dakar for his “inauguration”? Why are they silent about the corruptible gifts he received from the Senegalese estate dealer? Why are they silent about the money spent on his useless and futile “state” visit to Senegal and the money dished out to the Serigns on the orders of Macky Sall? Why are they mute about the Africell BRIBES Fatoumatta Tambajang received from her daughter?
Are you saying the wrong-doings in the past should steer the wrong-doings in the present, Natty?
Brother Sidi N. Bojang, I’ll come to you later. You are a real comrade-in-arms!