Comrades:

the folloiwng report by the Independent revealed disturbing human rights
violations by the APRC goverment.  Please read!

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The Independent (Banjul)

April 26, 2004
Posted to the web April 27, 2004

Banjul

A catalogue of torture, beatings and arbitrary detentions

The latest human rights report to emerge from the United States has catalogued instances
of human rights violations in the form of torture, beatings and arbitrary detentions
by the Gambia government over the last past year.


The report prepared by the US state department, covers human rights and other violations
meted out on individuals in The Gambia with the expressed approval of the government,
which has been indicted by the same report for encouraging the use of torture as
a means of extracting information.

Although the report acknowledged that there were no reports of politically motivated
disappearances in The Gambia over the past year, torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment were commonplace as government officials beat and on occasion
tortured persons.

"There continued to be reports that security forces, notably soldiers acting
outside the chain of command, mistreated civilians. The army requested that victims
file formal complaints so that the cases could be investigated; however, there were
no prosecutions of soldiers accused of torturing individuals during the year. For
example, on March 27, three soldiers beat Karamo Marong, a controller at the Banjul
ferry terminal.

Marong claimed he was beaten because he insisted the soldiers, who were purportedly
on an official mission, pay the crossing fee. No known action was taken against
the responsible soldiers. On April 8, soldiers on duty at the Abuko Earth Station
allegedly detained and beat Lamin Cham and Ebrima Ceesay after a man reported that
they stole his satellite antenna - an accusation both denied. Cham and Ceesay claimed
the soldiers stripped them naked, doused them with water, and flogged them with
cables for most of the day. They were released without charge; however, no known
action was taken against the responsible soldiers by year's end" the report
indicated.

The report also recalled another instance of soldier brutality on July 23, when
Hassan Jobe, the chief of Sanchaba Sulay Jobe village and members of his family
were maltreated. The report quoted Jobe as stating that his grandson, Ousman Njie,
was beaten unconscious while his wife was struck on her mouth, causing her to lose
a front tooth. "The soldiers allegedly used rifle butts to beat the Jobe family
after a heated dispute at a phone booth" it added.

According to the report although the army completed its investigation into the alleged
attack in September and advised the aggrieved family to take legal action in the
civil courts, agreeing to produce the soldiers for trial, no additional action was
taken.

"Nor was any likely to be taken, against the security personnel who beat or
otherwise abused persons in the following cases from 2001: The February beating
of John Senese; the April beating of Brian Secka; and the June beating of three
athletes in Kanifing" the report pointed out.

In a further revelation, which indicts the police for arbitrarily arresting and
detaining individuals the report pointed out that members of the police force were
generally corrupt and on occasions acted with impunity and defied court orders.

"The Government has not formally revoked military decrees enacted prior to
the 1997 Constitution that give the NIA and the Secretary of State for the Interior
broad powers to detain individuals indefinitely without charge "in the interest
of national security." The Constitution provides that decrees remain in effect
unless inconsistent with constitutional provisions. These detention decrees appeared
to be inconsistent with the Constitution, but they have not been subject to judicial
challenge" the report catalogued.

It also claimed that although the government had declared that it no longer enforced
decrees, in some instances, it did not respect the constitutional requirement that
detainees be brought before a court within 72 hours. "Detainees often were
released after 72 hours and instructed to report to the police station or NIA headquarters
periodically until their case went to trial. During the year, there were five known
cases that exceeded the 72-hour limit. Unlike in previous years, there were no reports
that detainees were held incommunicado".

"The law requires that authorities obtain a warrant before arresting a person;
however, on occasion individuals were arrested without a warrant. Detainees generally
were permitted prompt access to family members and legal counsel. There was a functioning
bail system.

On January 22, the NIA detained Dr. Ahmed Gibril Jassey, the elected chairman of
the Brikama Area Council for 6 days without charge. Jassey's arrest came a week
after the Secretary of State for Local Government had suspended him for alleged
mismanagement of funds. Some observers criticized the actions, arguing that the
suspension and arrest of an elected local government official without a full investigation
contravened the Local Government Act".

The US report also chronicled the harassment, intimidation and detention of journalists
and editors of newspapers that published articles it considered inaccurate or sensitive.
"For example, on June 30, NIA officers arrested and detained for 3 hours without
charge Alagi Yorro Jallow, editor of The Independent newspaper, allegedly for publishing
an erroneous report that two persons were killed in a Gambia-Senegal border clash
following a violent football match in June between the two countries. On September
20, Abdoulie Sey, editor-in-chief of The Independent newspaper, was detained for
3 days and released without charge after allowing the publication of an article
that criticized President Jammeh" the report revealed.

"Decrees 70 and 71 continued to inhibit free reporting. The decrees require
all newspapers to post a $3,000 (100,000 dalasi) bond or cease publication. The
bond was required to ensure payment of any penalties imposed by a court for the
publication of blasphemous or seditious articles or other libel. Independent newspaper
publishers complained that the bond placed a serious financial burden on them"
it added.

Although the non-government press practiced a degree of self-censorship, the press
frequently voiced strong, direct criticism of the government, and opposition views
regularly appeared in the independent press it observed.

It also described the National Media Commission as a state-appointed committee with
the right to license and register journalists (and to impose heavy fines and suspension
for failure to do so), force reporters to reveal confidential sources, issue arrest
warrants to journalists, and formulate a journalistic code of ethics.

Relevant Links

West Africa
Humanitarian Abuses and Civilians
United States, Canada and Africa
Gambia



The National Assembly adopted several amendments to the Act to eliminate the most
controversial provisions of the original text one of which was the removal of the
Commission's power to judge complaints against media practitioners and media organisations
and returned this power to the jurisdiction of the magistrate courts and the High
Court.

"The Media Commission can receive and investigate complaints but cannot pass
judgment. In December, the Supreme Court met to rule on the Media Commission's constitutionality;
however, a quorum of justices refused to sit, leaving the Media Commission without
legal standing" it explained.

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