News Detail
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  Jammeh’s Opposition Tango: Gambian Leader Takes a Page from the Book of Liberia’s Samuel Doe - 11/20/2005 10:07:12 AM

  Friday, July 22, 1994 was just another ordinary day in Banjul, until Yahya Jammeh (left) and his corp. of army officers seized power. Decades of rule by Sir Dawda Jawara ended abruptly, only to be ushered in by the latest addition to Africa’s Government by Gun, fear and dictatorship.
  Eleven years later, Editor-in-Chief Rodney D. Sieh looks back on the reign of a man who came to power, pledging to set himself apart from the rest, but instead seems determine to store his place in the unforgettable Dictators Hall of Shame, with the likes of the late Liberian dictator, Samuel Kanyon Doe (right).



  The recent arrest of opposition leaders Halifa Sallah, Hamat Bah, and Omar Jallow has brought the spotlight back on Jammeh, who, at only 36, is already a lock-in to become one of Africa’s brutal leaders. The unpredictability of his personality is the key reason why international observers and diplomats have expressed concerns about the fate of the detained leaders.
  "I would like to express to you, in the strongest possible terms, my concern for these individuals and my desire that they be released as soon as possible,” said Congresswoman Betty McCollum, D-4th District Minnesota. McCollum, a member of the Committee on International relations said, the arrest of the three opposition leaders, is extremely disturbing and casts the unfortunate appearance of an attempt to silence legitimate democratic voices.

Arrests-Samuel Doe Style




  The arrest of the opposition leaders continues the government’s restrictions on opposition political activity. In 1997, the ban on multi-party politics was lifted. But the ban seem again to have resurfaced.
  Under a presidential decree, all individuals who had held the office of President, Vice-President or government minister prior to the military coup were prohibited from engaging in political activities. In October 2005, President Jammeh dissolved the July 22 Movement, an unofficial organization supporting the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party, and its youth wing, the National Youth Action Group.
  Members of the July 22 Movement were alleged to have harassed and intimidated opposition party members, journalists and members of the public with impunity. This is not the first time that opposition leaders have fallen on the dark side of Jammeh’s reign.
  In 1997, opposition politician Syngle Nyassi was held for 26 days in incommunicado detention, during which he told Amnesty International,  he had been denied food and beaten. Syngle Nyassi was held without charge, in unacknowledged detention, by the National Intelligence Agency from 25 May, despite a high court order for his release.
  Ousainou Darboe, leader of the UDP, accused the government in May 2005 of arresting and harassing members of his party. He alleged that three party activists had been arrested, and others held for questioning, in connection with his visit to their village.
  Most of Jammeh’s critics have accused him of paying lip service to the plight of his countrymen and point to his excessive abuse of the constitutional rights of his people.
  There was an incident November 11, 1994 in which students were murdered, and the controversial killing of journalist Deyda Hydara.
  Immediately after seizing power, Jammeh suspended the previous constitution and introduced one that reintroduced the death penalty and paved the way for impunity and derogations of human rights, a trademark of many of his dictator peers.  He transformed his military lifestyle to that of a civilian, left his Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) tag along the way by retiring from the military. He ran and was elected president in a controversial election in September 1996.
  Jammeh’s election and reign followed a pattern used by Samuel Kanyon Doe in neighboring Liberia. Doe also came to power under similar circumstances. In 1980, a little-known soldier soon felt prey to the trappings of power.
   Doe was the leader of the coup that killed President William Tolbert. After the coup, he assumed leadership of Liberia, becoming the first ruler descended from the native people of the region. In 1981 he promoted himself to Commander in Chief and in 1985 he dissolved the military government and was elected president under the new government. Allegations of corruption, poor economic policies and rampant human rights abuses led to his overthrow and assassination in September of 1990.
  Like Doe, Jammeh issued decrees, banned politicians in the former government from political activity and granted total immunity from prosecution to those who held power from the military coup in 1994 until the return to civilian rule. These decrees remained in force at the end of 1999.
  According to the human rights group Amnesty International, in the years following the 1994 coup, the Gambian government's international isolation was gradually overcome. “Several governments and intergovernmental organizations resumed bilateral aid, although the country's human rights record did not improve. In February 1999, Gambia sent 120 soldiers to Guinea-Bissau to join a West African peace-keeping force there. The peace-keeping force left Guinea-Bissau in June following a change of government in May.”
  As chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, he took control of the country in a military coup in 1994, and was elected as president two years later in widely criticized elections, and was sworn into office on November 6, 1996. He founded the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction as his political party. He was re-elected in 2001, under a process generally deemed fair.

  Attacks on the Press

The death of journalist Hydara capped a tumultuous run of bad times for the media under Jammeh. Amnesty reports that “police and the security forces continued to intimidate journalists with arbitrary detentions and threats of violence. The government proposed legislation to create a National Media Commission with judicial powers to fine and jail journalists for six months or more if they refused to be a witness, or if they interrupted, insulted or otherwise disobeyed the Commission.”

  This commission has ultimate powers to seize a reporter's information or goods in connection with its inquiries. “No appeal against the Commission's decision would be allowed. Under the proposed law, no media organization or journalist could work unless licensed by the Commission.”  The powers have been branded as a “limited freedom of expression" by Amnesty.   The rule was instrumental in 1999, when immigration officers conducted open surveillance of the largest selling independent daily newspaper, The Daily Observer.

  According to Amnesty, the identity papers of those entering the newspaper's premises had to be checked, in a policy of intimidation aimed at non-Gambian journalists working there. Many foreign journalists were expelled in previous years. A new proprietor, reportedly close to the government, bought the newspaper in May and immediately dismissed the deputy managing director, Theophilus George, and the news editor, Demba Jawo, who is also president of the Gambia Press Union. The dismissals were alleged to be connected to past publication of articles critical of government policy.

The radio station Citizen FM remains closed after the government ordered it to cease operations in February 1998, apparently because of its broadcasts about the government's National Intelligence Agency, which has been connected with serious and persistent human rights violations.

  The authorities called the broadcasts "irresponsible journalism" and refused to renew the radio station's license. An appeal was still pending before the High Court at the end of 1999. The government appeared to delay the case, so prolonging the radio station's closure: government lawyers failed to turn up in court and a new magistrate was appointed to hear the case.


  In July, less than three weeks after it opened, the government ordered The Independent newspaper to close, citing deficiencies in registration, although its papers were in fact in order. The closure appeared to be linked to an editorial condemning alleged human rights violations since the 1994 military coup. The newspaper reopened after about one week.

  In July and August agents of the National Intelligence Agency briefly detained three staff members of the newspaper: the editor-in-chief, Baba Galleh Jallow; the managing editor, Yorro Alagi Jallow; and a reporter, N. Daffeh. At the end of December, the police Serious Crimes Unit arrested the three men and another reporter, Jalali Walli, on charges of libeling President Jammeh, in connection with an article speculating that President Jammeh had married for a third time.

In September, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Observer, Sheriff Bojang, and a senior reporter, Alieu Badara Sow, were briefly detained and interrogated by National Intelligence Agency officers. They had published reports that a Senegalese helicopter had circled the birthplace of President Jammeh, exchanging gunfire with the presidential guard.


  'Taste of Power'
  Economist and Africanist, Fred Van Der Kraaij, asserts that Doe’s failures started and ended with lies and deception.  Doe, on numerous occasions reiterated the army’s pledge to return to the barracks. On April 12, 1981, on the first anniversary of the coup, he announced the creation of a 25-member Constitutional Commission under the leadership of a renowned Liberian, Dr Amos Sawyer. A new constitution ‘should pave the road to a genuine democracy’.
  ”However, within the four years that followed everything changed,” says Van Der Kraaii. “Chairman Doe started to like the taste of power. He increasingly surrounded himself with members of the (small) Krahn-tribe, in number hardly exceeding the Americo-Liberians who now were excluded from power.”
  Van Der Kraaii says the U.S. were greatly relieved when Doe maintained the country’s pro-Western stance and Doe was even invited at the White House. “It was here that President Ronald Reagan made his historic blunder when he cordially greeted ‘Chairman Moe’ when he warmly shook his hand. Nevertheless, Liberia received more political and military assistance from the USA in the decade of Doe’s rule than it had ever received, despite an increasingly deteriorating political climate and human rights record.”
  The military take-over was a bloody one, labeled ‘a revolution’ by the 18 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of Liberia who toppled the Government of William R. Tolbert. The 66-year old President was savagely murdered by private soldier Harrison Pennoh, who later proved mentally unstable. Before the end of the month the entire Cabinet had been put on trial and sentenced to death - with no right to be defended by a lawyer and no right to appeal to the verdict.
  In a horrific scene they were all but one publicly executed on a beach near Monrovia. The only cabinet member who escaped from being shot was the only minister of tribal origin, raised in an Americo-Liberian family that was part of the Tolbert-clan.
  Tainted Reign
  Besides his attack on the press, Jammeh's reign has also been tainted by reports of torture, arrests and massive detention of his 'enemies'. Like Doe, who imprisoned many he felt were against his policies, or deemed as a threat were silenced under strange circumstances. In June 1998 four defendants charged with conspiracy to commit riot and damage to a building in the town of Brikama won acquittals. Originally, the National Intelligence Agency arrested and held incommunicado 10 prisoners of conscience — including members of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Imam of Brikama, Alhaji Karamo Touray.
  According to Amnesty, the arrests were in connection with alleged attempts to destroy a wall being erected around the mosque, reportedly by a pro-government youth group trying to prevent the Imam from speaking about political issues. At least one of the detainees was allegedly tortured in custody. After almost nine months of trial, the presiding magistrate discharged the defendants. The state filed an appeal against the judgment.
  Amnesty International reported that inmates at State Central Prison (Mile 2) were severely beaten and ill-treated by prison officers. Conditions at the prison amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment with denial of medical attention, insufficient food and unhygienic conditions. Women's rights have also been trampled upon under Jammeh. It was not until September 1999 that the National Assembly ratified a policy to grant women equal access to education, health, appropriate technology and decision-making.
  While the beginnings of Jammeh and Doe appear similar, it remains to be seen whether Jammeh’s reign will endure aresult in the climatic fate that that befell Doe.
  Like the Liberian leader, Jammeh has parted ways with many of his original peers with whom he staged the 1994 coup. Edward Singateh (left) and others have either fallen on the wrong side of Jammeh or eliminated under questionable circumstances just as Nicholas Podier, Thomas Weh Seyn and others fell off Doe’s radar.







  Retired Captain, Captain Sanna B Sabally, CAPT. Sonko, the late lieutenant Bassiru Barrow were said to be instrumental in Gambia's July 22nd 1994 coup. Singhateh was said to have been the mastermind behind the coup.

  On the day in question, Singhateh spoke with deposed President Jawara, who was on board a US naval vessel.  Attempts made by President Jawara for Singhateh and others to return to barracks failed, as the then young army lieutenant turned down Jawara’s request.
  Singhateh insists that Jawara would only be allowed to return to The Gambia, if he agrees and to serve as an "elder state man" and not a President.   Singhateh is today sidelined by the man he paved the way to be a President Yahya Jammeh.  His powers have been curtailed and he has been relegated to a Minister without portfolio.  Recent reports from Banjul also suggested that he was interrogated by the NIA on charges of trying over throw Yahya's government, together with other state Ministers.
  Jammeh has also betrayed most of his former close associates in the army. The lucky ones were jailed and others killed in the name of failed coup.  His former number two man Sanna B Sabally was jailed for nine years on treason charges, while Sabally's co-detainee Captain Sadibou Hydara died while in prison custody.

  Hydara was said to have been tortured to death after his refusal to reveal government foreign bank account that was opened to secure arms for the junta.  Lieutenant Almamo Manneh also perished under Yahya's rule, as he was killed by Presidential guards assigned to effect his arrest.  He was also accused of trying to unseat Jammeh.

  Lieutenant Musa Jammeh, Sgt. Kawsu Camara alias "Bombardeh" and other soldiers were said to have been behind the killing of Lt. Manneh and Corporal Dumbuya.  Under Yahya Jammeh's rule, politicians, soldiers, human rights activists and students have suffered from the hands of dictator Jammeh. .
  In the tradition of his predecessors, Jammeh’s legacy will be defined by his methods, his iron-clad reign and whether he will realize the consequences of his flaws before it's too late. Leaders before him have allowed the trappings of power to cloud their judgment as the sweet taste of power seemingly holds no boundaries. Undoubtedly, today Jammed feels like he is on top of the world and untouchable. How long that will last remains to be seen.

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