With Barrow's promise of a fresh start, Gambia begins to face history of injustice.

Record ID: 275540

  • Title: With Barrow's promise of a fresh start, Gambia begins to face history of injustice.
  • Date: 22nd February 2017
  • Summary: BAKAU, GAMBIA (RECENT - FEBRUARY 18, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WATCHING INAUGURATION CEREMONY FROM A TOWER VIP AREA WITH BARROW AND SIGN ABOVE READING #GAMBIAHASDECIDED BARROW HUGGING SENEGAL'S PRESIDENT, MACKY SALL AND THEN LIBERIAN PRESIDENT, ELLEN-JOHNSON SIRLEAF
  • Embargoed: 8th March 2017 15:31
  • Keywords: Adama Barrow Ousman Sonko Justice Omar Jallow Human Rights Torture
  • Location: BAKAU AND LAMIN, GAMBIA/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES/ UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
  • City: BAKAU AND LAMIN, GAMBIA/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES/ UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION
  • Country: Gambia
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA00964LQEDZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: While Gambia's military band rehearsed at Bakau stadium, before the inauguration of President Adama Barrow, policewoman Adama Manneh, watched the preparations with a mixture of relief and sorrow.
    Barrow symbolized the end of the brutal 22-year rule of former president Yahya Jammeh, but he came too late to save her brother, Chief Ebrima Manneh, a journalist who was arrested and has been missing since 2006.
    Adama Manneh and the rest of the family have spent the last 10 years wondering what happened to Ebrima Manneh, known by all as "Chief" and who worked at the pro-government newspaper, the Daily Observer.
    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said he was arrested by two plainclothes officers at his office and that the reason for his arrest was unclear, although some colleagues believe it was linked to his attempt to republish an article critical of Jammeh.
    When Barrow ordered the release of a number of political detainees soon after his return from exile in Senegal, Adama went to the prisons in Banjul hoping she would finally find her brother.
    "I went to headquarters where the list was brought to see if your people is there on that detention. Where I went to, his name is not there, so I have to go to the major crime. And lawyer complain that my brother was also arrested from his office and now he's not seen," she said.
    Authorities say they have launched investigations into the death and disappearance of people who could not be accounted for so far. The police say they are already looking into 30 cases of missing detainees.
    Chief Manneh's mother, Sulay Ceesay believes it is too late.
    "Up until now, there is no news of him. I don't think he's alive. That is why every time I think of my son, I cry. I can't help it," she said.
    "Ousman Sonko is aware of this whole situation, he and the head of the NIA (former name of Gambian intelligence agency), Bora Colley, and Solo Bojang (one of ex-President Jammeh's chiefs). They all know what happened to my son, Chief Manneh. I wish Sonko would have been brought back to Gambia to be tried. He could clear up what happened to Chief Manneh. He knows it very well. The three of them worked for the government and were the accomplices of Yahya Jammeh's detentions. Inside, Ousman Sonko knows what he did to my son," she said.
    Sonko was arrested in January whilst seeking asylum in Switzerland.
    Geneva based NGO TRIAL International, opened a criminal case against him. TRIAL helps victims of atrocities take the perpetrators to court and are investigating Sonko's involvement in the torture of political detainees.
    "In the case of Mr. Sonko, minister of interior who was overseeing police forces, a number of reliable sources point to the fact that torture has been quite widespread and systematically committed by the forces under his command, and that at least he must have been aware that those acts - beatings, electrocutions, and the like - have been committed," said TRIAL's Philip Grant.
    Human rights groups accuse Jammeh of torturing and killing opponents during his time in power. Members of his administration like Sonko, have also been accused of carrying out atrocities.
    Adama Manneh want's Jammeh, who is currently in exile in Equatorial Guinea to face justice too.
    "We want justice. I want the president (Yahya Jammeh) to tell us why he kill him and why should he kill him. I don't think he did anything to warrant him his death. He did not need to be killed," she said.
    New Agriculture Minister, Omar Jallow was a longtime and public critic of Jammeh. That got him jailed repeatedly and tortured on four occasions, beatings from which he still has scars.
    He was among dignitaries at Barrow's rapturous ceremonial inauguration on February 18. The president had already been officially sworn in a month ago during a brief exile in Senegal as Jammeh refused to accept his defeat in a December election.
    Barrow, 51, has promised sweeping reforms and that his government would respect freedom of speech.
    Amongst some of Barrow's first decisions as president was to reverse Jammeh's announcement Gambia would leave the International Criminal Court (ICC).
    "Justice will guide our action and this Government intends to maintain that spirit of national unity. The whole world supports us and The Gambia will remain a beacon of peace and hope for others to draw lessons from. Long Live The Republic! Long Live the United People of The Gambia! Forward Ever! Backward Never!" he said in his speech.
    Musa Saidykhan, a former editor-in-chief of The Independent - a Gambian newspaper, is watching progress back home closely.
    Before he fled to the United States, Saidykhan was arrested and tortured in 2006. NIA agents electrocuted his genitals, beat him with batons, suffocated him with a plastic bag and broke his right hand.
    "They told me because my problem was my mouth and my hand, so they decided to break my hand into pieces. They hit me with an iron until I hear my bones crack. And then also they came with a bayonet and sliced me with a bayonet here," he said.
    In the tense 49 days that Jammeh refused to hand over power to Barrow several people were arrested wearing T-shirts bearing the logo of the #Gambiahasdecided.
    On inauguration day it was emblazoned above the VIP stalls where Barrow sat amongst the leaders who helped him flush out Jammeh.
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