December 24th - Christmas Eve 2001.

Eighteen months ago, June 24th 2000, when Gambia was celebrating the official opening of the Homecoming Roots Festival in Banjul, I got a message that my husband, Modou Dumo Sarho, had been arrested. 

Most of you are already familiar with the story; how he was kept detained - totally incommunicado for almost five months - and how the authorities kept on denying the arrest.

On December 19th 2001 it was exactly one year since the trial started. A trial with sporadic hearings, with a total standstill from March - October 2001. A trial, which after one year has not even given any chance to the accused persons to answer to the charges and defend themselves.

After one year of court hearings the issue is still on the level of court procedures. On the latest sitting, December 19th 2001, the GPP did not even bother to turn up in court and the hearing was adjourned again - this time until January 9th 2002.

A number of petitions, both national and international, have been submitted. Letters of appeal have been given to relevant authorities, even if always unresponded to.

Many times during these eighteen months I have had hopes; when the former Attorney General was fired, around Koriteh and Tobaski, on July 22nd, after the election, on the day of the "swaring in" of the President after his reelection.

For people in Dumo's situation, every day counts. Imagine, eighteen months when you are daily subjected to  inhuman conditions and disgrace.  

By now I think it is high time that someone dares to take the responsibility to put an end to this inhumane, unfair and unconstitutional detention. Dumo and his co-accused have suffered enough.

Annika Renberg
(Wife of Dumo Sarho)

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