(JollofNews) – In wake of recommendations made in 2017 by a UN Working Group for the closure of the notorious Mile Two State Central Prison, Gambia’s Adama Barrow has expressed his resolve to build a new correctional facility that would be in line with international standards.The Gambian leader made this remark Tuesday during his bi-annual news conference held at State House, Banjul. Deplorable and life threatening conditions prevailed for more than two decades at Mile Two prisons, located in the outskirts of Banjul.
In June 2017, a UN Working Group delegation concluded a eight-day visit to Gambia. They had the opportunity to meet the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior and other high-level State authorities, as well as civil society organisations and relatives of the victims. At a presser held at UN House in Cape-Point, the delegation disclosed to the media that advised Gambian authorities to close down Mile Two as the prison facility has become a blatant attack to human dignity.
Barrow told journalists that they have finalised plans for a new prison to be constructed. But he was quick to add that the project is delayed because of financial constraints.
Since attaining independence, the tiny West African nation has inherited three correctional facilities from British colonial rule. Located in Banjul, Old Jeshwang and Jangjangbureh, these facilities have become ‘houses of death’ under Jammeh regime, as they were used to silence opposition voices and dehumanise honest citizens.
Reliable sources close to prison authorities revealed that a site was identified in Janbajelly, and also confided to this reporter that Mile Two has undergone an uplifting process that is impacting positively in the life of detainees.
The Gambian leader assured that the political will is there to construct a new correctional facilityThe Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is expected to submit its report in September 2018. The UN delegation is comprised of five independent experts from all regions of the world. The Chair-Rapporteur is Ms. Houria Es-Slami (Morocco) and the Vice-Chair is Mr.Bernard Duhaine (Canada); other members are Mr.Tae-Ung Bail (Republic of Korea), Mr Luciano Hazan (Argentina) and Mr.Henrikas Mickevicius (Lithuania).
Illegal Timber Trade
Asked about what his government is doing to put a halt to illegal logging, President Barrow said security has been strengthened around all landing sites to prevent the smuggling of timbers into the country.
He further stated that he and his Senegalese counterpart are committed to putting an end to an activity that continues to pose a real threat to people livelihoods, and to deny future generations the right to live in a better world.
Barrow also emphasized that Gov’t has spent between two to three million dalasis to allow security forces to be permanently at the landing sites.
He made it clear that Gambia Gov’t cannot support people who are involved into illegality,
In the West Coast region and Kanifing Municipality, companies and individuals are benefiting from an illegal activity that has
scaled up the disappearing of the forest cover in the Senegambian sub-region.
To many observers, Gambia and Senegal are part of the Sahel region and cannot satisfy China’s voracious appetite for natural resources.
Ironically, three hours after the end of the President’s engagement with the media, your humble servant came across a truck carrying logs, suggesting that there is a boom of illegal logging in the country.
The language is at least changing from prison to correctional facility. A borrowed term to sugar coat the mass incarceration of black people in the US. Way to go.
Adama if you are listening, here is my piece of advice for the sake of our people, our country and for your own legacy. The majority of inmates in mile 2 and other prisons are for crimes, the root cause of which lie squarely in poverty, lack of opportunities, joblessness, social and cultural displacements etc. Instead of building the “correctional facility“, lobby for funds internally and beyond our borders to build sports and recreational facilities that will give both the young and the old, a sense of purpose in life, which in turn conditions the human body and mind to engage in productive undertakings.
Second, the prisons are clogged with petty marijuana peddlers and consumers. Progressive nations in the world are moving away from locking people up for the recreational use of ganja to having legally registered and tax paying controlled outlets that produce and market this product. Criminalizing something we know a good percentage of citizens are using is the height of foolishness. My opinion is just a snippet of what needs to be reformed to bring our justice system in tandem with our true Afrikkan values and norms.
Renovating mile 2, equipping it fit for our times, and reducing the prison population through amnesties, community services, and training programs should suffice for now.
Over to you………….
Brilliantly witty piece with solid recommendations.
Mwalimu; that’s sounds well. Giving more opportunities to prisoners for betterment sounds good, they are human being, and will needs some help and support.
AT THE COURT MARTIAL: “I WAS ELECTROCUTED, KICKED, BEATEN”- CAPTAIN MENDY
By Fabakary B. Ceesay
Captain Pierre John Mendy, the’ ex-Commanding Officer (CO) of the Fajara Barracks, had revealed to the Court Martial that he was electrocuted, kicked and mercilessly beaten by officers at the NIA Headquarters. Captain Mendy made these revelations at the Court Martial on Thursday 15th February 2007.
Captain Mendy said when he was taken to the NIA for questioning on the 23rd March 2006, he told the panelists that he knew nothing about the alleged coup plot. He said, “For one hour they were questioning me and I was answering them. They told me, this is not what we want. If you don’t tell us what we want, we will get the hell out of you,” he said. Captain Mendy noted that at that time, there were five (5) soldiers standing at his back. “One gave me a nasty slap. I told Hydara, if you are about to kill me, then kill me, I don’t know anything about this.” Mendy said Hydara told him to say that somebody told him about it. He said Hydara also asked him to write that somebody informed him about it and added that he then paused for five to ten minutes and told Hydara that he cannot understand being asked to write about something that he was not part and parcel of and knew nothing about. He also said that Hydara again asked him to just write something and that they will use him as a witness. “I consented that RSM Alpha Bah told me”. He added that Hydara said, “Ok Lamin Cham, go with him and take his statement”. Mendy indicated that while he was in the room with Lamin Cham and with two other soldiers standing at his back, he asked Lamin Cham that there was no independent witness with them in the conference hall. He said that Cham told him to excuse him and went away for two minutes. “When he came back, he said the independent witness will come later,” he said. He said he was later taken back to mile two prisons. “While I was disembarking from the vehicle, Lance Corporal Malick Jatta struck me with the rifle on my head again”, he explained. He said Jatta insulted him and later added, “Today mosquitoes will bite you. I also told him prison belongs to nobody,” he stressed. He said he sustained a wound on his head. He indicated that he reported the matter to Lieutenant Colley, that Malick Jatta was beating him. He indicated that Colley promised him that he will tell the guards to stop the beating or he will change the escort team. He said that he appealed to Lieutenant Colley to call the medic to attend to him, which was later granted and he was dressed with two plasters on his head.
At this juncture, his Counsel, Lamin S. Camara, asked him to show the court the wound on his head, which was inspected by the panel. He said on the 25th March 2006, at around 5pm, he was taken to the NIA Headquarters. “I met one Mr. Bojang, alias Binladen, who told me ‘Captain Mendy welcome’ explained Mendy .” He told me that I was there for the independent witness to sign my cautionary statement dated the 23rd March 2006. Later the gentleman came into the office and Bojang told him ‘don’t come here to make mistakes, you made mistakes in the statement of Captain Abdoukarim Jah’,said Mendy.He added “I asked Bojang what mistakes are that and he told me Captain Jah’s cautionary statement was taken on the 22nd and he wrote 25th March 2006”. He said that he was told by Bojang that his statement will be backdated to 23rd, when it was signed on the 25th March 2006.
Going further, Captain Mendy explained that he was taken to the NIA complex again on the 29th March 2006. He said that whilst there Momodou Hydara of the NIA stood up and said, “Captain Mendy, now we want you to tell us all what has transpired between you and Colonel Ndure Cham. I told him, nothing transpired between us. One Baba Saho, an NIA Officer, asked me whether am fit to live in the next minute. I told him yes, am a human being, if these mosquitoes can live, what about me” narrated capt.Mendy.He continued “Then Hydara said, lets electrocute him, but Baba said, lets give him to the soldiers to beat him mercilessly. I was then taken downstairs behind the building in handcuffs. I was instructed to sit down on the ground, blind folded and beaten. I was later taken back to mile two without writing any statement. On that day I was not electrocuted,” added Mendy.
Captain Mendy narrated that on 10th April 2006, at the early morning hours at around 12:30 am to 1:00am, he was taken back to NIA headquarters. “This time I was only taken behind the building where I was instructed by Corporal Sana Manjang to sit down. He was later joined by Malick Jatta, Corporal Nuha Badjie and Michael Jabang. After a while, WO1 Tumbul Tamba came walking on his toes. He switched off the veranda light. Nuha Badjie put a plastic bag over my head. Corporal Manjang told me, you have to tell us all what Ndure Cham told you or else we get your dead body out of this place. I told him I know nothing and Ndure Cham has never told me anything. Then I was electrocuted on my left hand and I started yelling. Malick Jatta was using his combat boots on my skin, and also kicking me on my back.
After they used six (6) plastic bags over my head, of which I tore one by one up to six, Nuha Badjie announced that there was only one plastic bag left. Manjang told me to measure my length on the ground after which they started beating me again mercilessly. Sticks, electric wires and boots started raining on my back. After a while, Musa Jammeh came and asked, “Hey! Hey! What is going on here?” I told him they were torturing me. He instructed them to stop and take me back to mile”. Captain Pierre John Mendy is standing trial at the Court Martial for concealment of treason prior to the alleged March 21st abortive coup last year.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper
Listen to the words of a wiseman.
“If you spend money in our classrooms today, you won’t need to build jails tomorrow”.
That is the irony of the justice system in The Gambia. Those throwing the “criminals“ into prisons are the very ones who instead should be jailed. All the necktie wearing crooks and fools who pilfer public resources and connive with each other to perpetrate heinous economic and political crimes on us cannot be expected to spend money in our classrooms to attain either quantity or quality in our education system. An education system that is metaphorically a factory conveyor belt producing halfwits and highly corruptible souls. The self serving idiocy that attains under this regime is very telling of the decimal intellectual acumen of the head of state, Adama Barrow.
The earlier he and his team (who have become parrots without work ethics) leave office, the better for the nation and its aspirations for a possibility at total transformation of the system.
This response of mine is a cross platform comment, for it was originally intended to be posted on Kairo News. I unfortunately encountered technical problems in trying to register and write on their comments section. I am commenting on the article whose link is posted below by Alhagi Touray in Sweden, Stockholm.
http://www.kaironews.com/of-gambias-barking-intellectuals/
Criticism of any kind in a democratic society towards elected officials cannot and should not be equated to selfishness and or unpatriotic behavior. Democracy does not thrive in silence or on silencing those who have alternative and differing perspectives and ideas of standards and processes.
Alhagi will reward his perceived silent intellectuals who toil under the system with a thank you note. At best, he is advocating the same kind of docility from the “intellectuals” as Yaya did in his 22 years of massive looting and rights abuses.
The furor that followed Dr. Ceesays’ interview on Freedom Newspaper radio asserting the president does not possess the intellectual pedigree to lead the nation in this critical transitional period, is indicative of a disconnect between yearning for rights and wanting those rights to curtailed for a certain segment of society.
Whether critical thinking abilities and deaf analytical prowess are necessary traits for presidential leadership is a debatable matter. On the other hand, that Ismaila (intellectual or not) has the right to utter his opinion on anything and everything in Gambian politics is enshrined in the constitution and other laws of The Gambia. If Adama felt offended by those assertions, he too has the right to institute legal action against Ismaila.
Choosing to respond from the temper makes Adama look like lacking those very intellectual traits Ismaila pointed out. “Where were they” has become a social media meme portraying the man in all sorts of manners meant to make him look crude, unsophisticated and unpresidential.
I talked to Ismaila and promised him my support even though I personally don’t agree with him on some the points he raised. But I fear for him. Why? The African political elite does not know how to create intellectuals necessary for paving the way for knowledge and understanding to thrive in society but they have mastered the art of banishing thought shapers who won’t play to the status quo. Or at worst, fatally neutralize them. Is Adama capable of such a barbaric act? Well, since he came to power, I have learned never to say never. He is certainly evolving into everything we have fought against.
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Alhagi dissected the modus operandi of The Gambian intelligentsia in identifying problems but poorly communicating that to the government and the people. Has he forgotten that governments come to power already armed with well stated and defined aims and objectives. Intellectuals who are employed by government or government agencies are the ones who are supposed to turn these objectives into realities. It’s no prerogative of any ordinary citizen (intellectual or not) to be advising the government or providing unsolicited ideas on and for anything.
There is in fact no known entity called “Gambian intellectuals”. It’s myopic, very myopic on the part of Alhagi to lump all Gambian thinkers into one category and write:
” they believe that by highlighting a problem they can create dissatisfaction which can even lead to a change but not necessarily solving the problem. After listening to some of our self-anointed intellectuals and university graduated elites, I have been inundated with disappointment, for their academic attitude and academic abilities have not matched. As a student of Stockholm in Sweden, I was thought not only about the method of critical thinking but that university study is all about critical thinking”.
As a student of Stockholm?!
Mumbo jumbo, pure and simple.
The syndrome of talking, at the same time saying nothing.
Not every Gambian who has some sort of university qualification or the other is ready to associate him/herself with the characterization Alhagi provided. Just because one teaches at a university those not necessarily make that particular person an intellectual. Besides, intellectual is often domain specific, which makes Ismaila prime for expressing his political views on what a future president should be equipped with to avoid the mistakes that Adama is every day making.
It seems Alhagi Touray would like to see this government succeed. So do I and so does Dr. Ismaila Ceesay.
How we can best help him is to remind him to resort back to the coalition manifesto and agreement, the agenda that Gambian people bought by voting him into office.
Yours in the service of The Gambia and the Black Nation, I remain.
Mwalimu, I could frame the second segment of your response and put it up in the hallway of a Gambian institution.
Now, I’ll make this short and witty. The misconception or fabricated illusion surrounding “Gambian Intellectuals” held by Alagi Touray and his ilk is just that. A self serving disposition that may as well be in the clouds.
I’m reminded of the Manding adage that, Mo Beh Ka Fo Ila Boro Leh Yeh Tiw Tiw, Bari Ning Taa May Ta, Wo Tumo Leh Korma Tuu Lalu Ka Long.
“A student of Stockholm”? Is that more like a student of street savvy in Malmo?
Indeed Mwalimu, that’s a classic case of talking loud but saying nothing.
Andy, the UDP could not absorb all the griots at Kairo News into the foreign services. The remnants however are continuing to scavenge for leftovers in typical fashion from Ousainou and Adama.
I don’t expect any better but lies and fabrications will be scrutinized to the bare bones. Our political history is littered with event falsifiers like Alhagi, only trying to further self serving agendas.
If Adama says he brought about the change, where does that leave Ousainou when he sang “Ousainou yee bankoo taa”? Both are claiming to be the savior of the land. What’s at work here?
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You are teaching me Mandinka orthography by capitalizing the beginning of every word. It reminds me of the periodic table and the symbols that represent the elements. lol
Cheers to a new writing style.