The first July 22 in the history of the TRRC could not have passed off without the most important revelation coming out from the key perpetrators of that Yaya Jammeh Tyranny. History is so interesting that on this Day of Infamy none other than Malick Jatta, one of the members of the Jammeh death squads exposed in graphic detail how they killed Deyda Hydara on the orders of the Tyrant.
We have heard Toufah expose the sexual violence meted to her by Yaya Jammeh only for some of our citizens to cast doubt on her. It makes one wonder how anyone could doubt that Yaya Jammeh has the capacity to rape a woman when he could take a whole life at once! Now that Malick Jatta has come to speak about how Yaya Jammeh directed them to kill Deyda, we wonder if some Gambians will also come out to say they need Malick to give more evidence or his story is a one-man story and needs corroboration from djinns and angels!
The testimony of Malick Jatta just like what Toufah said all go to confirm what is already common knowledge that indeed we had an illegitimate president who was a rapist and a killer. What we did not know then was the details of the criminality and imbecility of Yaya Jammeh and his gang of killers and rapists like Malick Jatta.
The other tragedy of this state-orchestrated terrorism on Gambians was that it was strongly and consistently aided and abetted by an entire civilian authority in the National Assembly and the Judiciary as well as by a political party and religious and traditional leaders across the country.
Today those members of the National Assembly who were in support of Yaya Jammeh and those who still support that despotic political party should bury their heads in shame as they come face to face with the carnage that they defended for 22 years. Let us see who will be the first honourable person to resign from that party of rape and murder as well as reject Yaya Jammeh in totality!
Today, exactly 25 years after Jammeh was rejected by the masses of Gambians it has become clear that his regime was nothing but a cancer that was eating the best sons and daughters of the Gambia. Those who continue to support Yaya Jammeh and his criminal organizations such as AFPRC, APRC, July 22 Movement, Green Boys and Girls among other nonsensical titles must demonstrate where they stand today. Are you for the Gambia or are you for a murderer and rapist?
Above all what this testimony manifests is the urgent need for a total rethink of the role and composition of the armed and security services of the Gambia. How could a national institution such as the military be transformed into a personal gang of one person just because he is the president of the republic? If that is possible then one wonders why therefore could another government like what we have now fail to urgently and swiftly undertake the necessary reforms in order to make the military a true people’s army.
With the disclosure of Malick Jatta it is now clear that the AFPRC/APRC Regime must be declared a terrorist regime that represents the darkest period in the history of the Republic of the Gambia. Our citizens must be taught of the existence and carnage of this regime as part of the civic education to prepare our people to stand up at all times to defend national sovereignty and their rights and freedoms.
We must educate our people that leaders are not saints or divine or supermen and superwomen, rather they are mere elected and appointed public servants. Elected men and women are mere mortals who can be corrupt, stupid, indecent, evil and lazy like any other human being. We must not ever venerate elected and appointed public officials rather we must hold them accountable by checking their every word and action every day.
For the Gambia Our Homeland
Deyda Hydara was gunned down by soldiers.
Yes it was Yahya Jammeh’s WILL at the HANDS of Malik Jatta and others.
A very bad and unfortunate event.
Now what do you do with all these murderers in the GNA.
How can one reform this institution.
To those who still do not believe that the GNA waged a long and protracted war against the citizens of this country, to those that do not believe that our ONLY natural enemy is our own Armed Forces, think again.
Obviously, even a MAD man can now see that we do not need an Army. Internal security can be handled by Police Force, immigration and other security organizations. Gambia does not need THUGS in Uniform at tax payers expense.
@Babu Soli. Even you can now see that you have been deceived. Yahya Jammeh was wrong, very very wrong Sir. You cannot explain away cold blooded murder of an Innocent Man. A journalist doing his job.
God Help us make sensible decisions.
Yahya Jammeh murdered Deyda Hydara.
He was gunned down in cold blood by Gambia soldiers. For the most part Malik Jatta account was accurate, but I can’t understand why he chose to lie about Tumbul Tamba. On that faithful night, Tumbul Tamba also fired. We know that from other corroborating eyewitnesses.
@Babu Soli. Can there be justification for the killing of an innocent man.
For those who still make the ridiculous emotional argument that we need GNA, I believe we can at least agree now that the taxpayers are paying for thugs in uniform. We do not have a professional armed forces.
God Help Us.
Quote @Dr I. Sarr: “…..we can at least agree now that the taxpayers are paying for thugs in uniform.”
No, I think this statement is an unfair generalisation because:
1. the torture, beatings and killings were carried out by the Junglers, as far as we know;
2. the Junglers are a tiny unit within the GNA, stationed at State House and under Jammeh’s direct control;
3. we do not know of any other units within the GNA, or Armed Forces in general, that have been accused of widespread atrocities;
4. on the contrary, there are other units and many officers and men/women within the GNA who disproved of their (Junglers) activities and one particular officer (late Major Kalifa Bajinka-RIP) had directly or indirectly intervened to disrupt these criminals’ operations and save lives, according to testimonies before the TRRC;
5. there are operatives, even within the Junglers, who disproved of their activities and had clandestinely divulged information about their activities to relevant online media bodies. Private/Lance corporal Bai Lowe is an example;
6. both serving and ex-members of the GNA had staked their lives and freedoms to attempt to remove Jammeh, a probable indication that they were against the madness of the Junglers, amongst other things;
7. the barbarities of the Junglers are carried out by a core group of sadistic individuals whose names always pop up when their atrocities are mentioned and these include Malick Jatta, Sana Manjang, Tumbul Tamba, etc.
Therefore, I will say that this group (Junglers) is not a fair representation of the GNA and should not be used to define the institution.
The commander in chief was a thief and a murderer. He used members of the force to kill innocent civilians. No one in the chain of command protested publicly or stopped him. Senior officers who knew what was going on did not protect their subordinates. There are still many who participated directly or indirectly by their silence in the GNA.
No Sir, it was and still is a criminal enterprise by any definition.
Let me tell you what I will do: What I want my country to die:
1. Accept certain painful realities.
2. Think with our HEAD not our HEART.
3. Accept that GNA is not a professional organization.
4. The Leadership and Men are poorly trained.
5. They cannot and have never defended our territorial integrity.
6. They have never engaged any foreign invaders on our soil.
7. They have consistently engaged in the killing of innocent civilians.
Yes, I will personally retire the entire leadership of the Army.
I will deploy the men to civilian ministry, police and immigration.
I will creat a border patrol force that will be stationed in Post at the border. I will sell Fajara and Yundum to developers for needed housing.
I am sure there are decent people in the Army. This is not an indictment of them and their service. The issue is how do we move forward with our current men and women in uniform. These are people who have had 22 years of criminal leadership.
Anything else is what I call our Gambian avoidance of the TRUTH.
On the issue of whether we need a standing army (GNA), I will reiterate my position, as I did before, when the subject came up for discussion through an article by Hon. Seedy Sanneh, in relation to expenditures within the national budget, where he asked the same question. I have stated then that The Gambia does need a standing army and I still hold the same view.
This is not an emotional argument sister Dr I. Sarr, but rather, a realistic one based on the fact that every nation has defence needs and as such, one has to provide for their own defence needs or delegate that to another state, thus accepting to becoming a vassal of the power/state that assures your defence; for no power or country would guarantee another’s defence needs for nothing.
Senegal is no exception, for the critics of a standing army often cite our geographic position within Senegal and contend that we can relegate our defence needs to that country. Do we think Senegal would just say, “oh yes Gambia come on, we will protect you free of charge.” That is not realistic.
Others contend that a well trained Police Force can address our defence and law enforcement needs, all in one. I mean no disrespect, but I think there is something this group is missing: A Police Force has a completely different role from an Armed Force and to combine the two in one would amount to building a killing machine, ready to use by any leader so inclined.
The Police, by virtue of their role as law enforcement agency, must interact with the civilian population on a daily basis, dealing with all the different scenarios and challenges that such a role entails. Hence they need a special type of training (with its set of rules), equipment and use of equipment, whether that’s intellectually, psychologically, physically and operationally to perform effectively and efficiently.
The Army, on the other hand, deals with national defence needs from (mainly) external aggression and do not have to interact with the public daily or deal with challenges that such interactions could present to them. Hence, they require a completely different training, equipment (and their use) and different operational manuals. Their approach is different, their mentality is different, their areas and situations of operation is different and thus, must be trained to react differently to situations they are likely to encounter, which are completely different from the Police.
I think combining the two distinctly different roles in one agency is a recipe for absolute disaster in The Gambia that we live in today.
As an example of the danger inherent in combining roles of different agencies into one, we only need to look at the NIA. An intelligence agency whose role should ONLY have been collecting and analysing intelligence data in order to identify security threats and pass that information to the relevant national security body, and which by necessity, requires a great deal of secrecy, was also given law enforcement powers of arrest and detention; a role ONLY the uniformed branch of the Police Force should perform. The outcome of this mistake is all well too known, isn’t it? Do we want to repeat that same mistake again? That’s one of the many questions we need to ask ourselves, as we strive to build a society that will NOT tolerate impunity ever again.
As for the charge against officers of the GNA and the army as a whole, I totally agree with you sister Dr I. Sarr.
As the institution that catapulted Yaya Jammeh to power and which he entirely relied on to keep power for so long, I think the GNA has failed the nation by allowing itself to be misused and abused by Jammeh without any consequences. But here’s my view on that, which could also be seen as my defense of the institution.
1. Why level this criticism against the GNA alone because the same charges (of silence, indifference, complicity, etc) could be levelled against any state or non state institutions in the country; whether that’s the National Assembly, Judiciary, Civil Service, Civil Society, Religious & Professional Bodies or society at large. Who, except a few ( who were abandoned to be cannibalize by the regime), stood up against the impunity of the regime for 22 years. So, if that’s why GNA must be dissolved, I would contend that there are many that must also follow, failing which the GNA would have been scape goated for our collective failure.
2. Perhaps, equally important is the need to give context to the silence, indifference and 22 year complicity of virtually the whole nation, if we want to understand why it happened and how it must never be allowed to happen again.
The Gambia did not emerge from a vacuum in 1965 to become an “independent” state. There was a colonial state ( before independence) whose subjects and institutions were organised, structured and administered to serve ONLY the colonial state. The institutions, under the colonial state, were required and made to show total compliance to the needs of the state, whilst the subjects had to show total obedience and total subjugation to the needs of the state. This was achieved through the “divide and rule” strategy, as well as, “carrot and stick” approach. The Civil Service represented the carrot element whilst the Police and Armed Forces represented the stick element, and for these two institutions to fulfil their roles, the Colonial Governor, who exercised the authority of the monarch, had absolute control of, and direction over, the state machinery. He can order the appointment, dismissal, promotion, demotion, recognition of any employee of the state or order the arrest, detention, torture or killing of anyone. The question is, did any of this change with independence? The answer, in my view, is an emphatic NO, and I want anyone who disagrees to prove me wrong. I must point out that Jawara is not known to have exercised authority with impunity, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he could have done it, if he was that inclined, because he too, like the colonial governor, had absolute control of state machinery. We know that his government demanded total loyalty from state and non state employees and the people in general. Even suspicion of belonging to the opposition could lose one their jobs or be denied development projects. So the people must show total loyalty, and demonstrate this on political platforms and gatherings, by praise singing, clapping and dancing for the president, before they could even beg for simple things like food aid. And God knows we were very good at it, as different communities, Kaffolu and cultural groups competed to outdo each other.
Thus, rather than being served by the elected ruler, we the people became servants of the state and hence, the ruler, who has absolute control of state machinery. Neither dissent, nor critism or even legitimate opposition was tolerated by the state and in some instances, communities around the country. This was the Gambia that the children of the post independence era and their children were born into and grew up in. This was the Gambia that Yaya Jammeh inherited and this is the reason why he was able to do what he did.
Undoubtedly, a lot has changed in “new Gambia”, but ONLY in the attitudes, activism and involvement of the citizenry. The construct of the state machinery and its institutions, the requirement to show total loyalty and the absolute control of the ruler (President) over the state has stubbornly remained the same. Barrow can order arrest and detention and the order will be fully carried out because those that will be directed will have no choice. It is all well and good for successful individuals who possess residential permits in the developed world to say that officials should resign if required to execute certain orders, but if you are a Police officer or soldier, who had risen from constable/private to Commander or Army General, with 20-30 years of service under your belt, it would take guts, and an element of foolishness (If you ask me), to question an authority that no one questions, more so, when your question would not change the authority’s behaviour or public indifference, but would cost you everything, even your freedom or possibly, your life.
This, in my view, is the context my sister, and unless we change this construct of the state and its institutions, we risk creating another Yaya Jammeh sooner than we would think.
Oops, meant ” the outcome of this mistake is all too well known.”
@Bax. All I can say is, The GNA failed God and Country.
Dr Isatou Sarr,
To be very sincere,I revere sincerity, I hardly make any comments/remarks on the TRRC deliberations
Personally, it was a neocolonialist(UN) founded y funded institution meant to destabilize, divide and divert our attention and other meagre resources on innocuous efforts and activities.
I do not recognize its establishment and ‘agenda’. Nor do I recognize its conflicted commissioners whose monetary and miscellaneous privileges are wastefully biting our economy.
I think it would therefore be fair enough not to give opinions. I was indeed disappointed at hearing witnesses being bribed with money and land to say what the commissioners want(ed) to hear.
How impartial they are, Babu reserves his opinion.
Babu, you cannot hide behind claims of neo-colonial control to escape reality. Soon, it will catch up with you.
Bax,
It’s really indignant when we cannot decipher neocolonial maneuvers and attempts to destabilize any gist of our social,political and economic progress.
Worst of all, is the naivety to act, the silence to condon and the blindness to read of the African intellectual, to a lesser degree the Gambian intellectual, to the continuous presence of neocolonial institutions and/or dictates in the welfare of our nations.
We have more acute problems than setting up a USELESS TRRC where a commisioner’s single monthly emolument is ten times the annual earning of a farmer in my URR.
Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a TRRC with the sole intention of tarnishing the image of a patriotic president who stood against all odds to deny the dictates of the white man?
“…..deny the dictates of the white man!!!” You must be kidding me. He bought a THREE MILLION DOLLAR mansion with our stolen cash in the white man’s land, where he and his family would love to live, but for the restrictions placed on them. It is your prerogative to continue living in denial. Time, though, will catch up with you soon, as it will surely catch up with Yaya Jammeh, as the case mounts against him.
Next stop is the much talked about and publicly known OLD WELL in Cassamance, where the remains of his victims (dead and dying) were dumped. We will bring them home to give them decent burials and shame all of you Jammeh apologists. Insha-Allah, God willing.