EDITORIAL:COUP SUSPECTS SUBJECTED TO PHYSICAL AND VERBAL ABUSE?
EDITORIAL
The alleged coup suspects detainees are being treated unfairly by the administration of President Yahya Jammeh. The detainees are denied access to their lawyers, decent food, regular bath and the right to make voluntary statements. The Freedom Newspaper gathered that coupled with this, the detainees were also subjected to physical and verbal abuse by their captives. The sad thing about all this is that, the detainees have already been presumed guilty by The Gambian authorities, without the courts deciding their fate. The ongoing media trials and forced confessions were geared towards preempting the judicial process, which is yet to kick off.
TAMSIR JASSEH, CONTEH AND JAMMEH.
There are unconfirmed reports circulating that some of the detainees resorted to hunger strike due to the mistreatment they were exposed to by the NIA. The detainees according to prison sources are no longer eating these days.
Sources hinted that they were exposed to mental and physical torture in a bid to own up to the alleged crime they were accused of. Former sacked popular KMC Chairman Lie Conteh, is reported to have suffered the brunt of this police brutality. Conteh, we learned, vowed that he was ready to die than to plead guilty to a crime he was not aware of. Other civilian detainees also were reported to have maintained the same stance.
What is amazing is that Lie and other civilian detainees were never given the opportunity to explain their side of the story on the GRTS grand media trial. The authorities failed to tell us why Lie, Antouman Gaye, a well respectable lawyer, Adama Deen, politician MC Cham and others were not allowed to be heard by The Gambian nation. These folks we are made to understand, have denied knowledge about the government coup story.
There is this talk going on in town that human rights lawyer Antouman Gaye, was detained in a bid to block him from representing the coup suspects. We buy such arguments, because Gaye had been on the forefront in the recent past in representing Gambian folks framed by this desperate government in the name of national security. We are very much worried about Gaye’s safety these days. We have seen lawyer Ousman Sillah, who was in the business of representing the underprivileged and framed Gambians life attempted by this government.
Mr. Sillah, nearly escapes death as he was shot on numerous occasions by his assassins. The Bar Association should start dispatching alerts to the UN and other human rights bodies about the dangers our country’s lawyers are exposed to. It is unfair for this administration to deny lawyers to see their clients. In the absence of justice and fair play, peace cannot be guaranteed. The detainees should be allowed to have access to their lawyers, families and associates.
The situation President Jammeh and his government are trying to create will only raise doubts on the minds of Gambians. Already, Gambians are speaking openly about this alleged coup. Some will tell you that they don’t trust anything Jammeh says these days. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. If citizens are doubting their own President, there is something wrong somewhere.
Listening to the testimonies given by Tamsir Jasseh, Captain Darboe, the Marabouts and others, one will begin to question if these people were not forced to talk or risked facing the consequences.
There were a lot of inconsistencies in their stories. One family member of Jasseh told the Freedom Newspaper that this was not the Jasseh they used to know. They said the man was not focused when he faced the GRTS media trial. That they suspected that the man was injected with drugs to lose his mind. Jammeh himself will hear such stories in the streets of Banjul. Well, all we know is that, there are shocking machines in Jammeh’s torture chambers. With regards to the injection torture mechanism, it is news to us. But one cannot rule out these theories completely, knowing how barbaric and dictatorial this administration is.
This government will do a great deal of respect to itself, if it upholds the rights and liberties of these detainees pending the determination of this capital offence they are accused of. Exposing them to these humiliations and forced confession is against the dictates of our constitution. As the constitution rightly pointed out “ all accused persons are presumed innocent, until proved guilty by a competent court.” We cannot understand why Jammeh is reluctant to go by the said constitutional provision.
The civilized world should step in before this mad Jammeh will plunge our dear country into complete crisis. Up to the time of piecing this editorial together, the Independent Newspaper, Editorial staffers, Madi Ceesay and Musa Saidykhan were held by the security forces.
About thirty other civilian detainees are also currently held. These harassments could lead to something else and we need your intervention now. The Gambia, is no doubt at war. The rights and liberties of citizens are ceased by despot Jammeh, who is aided and abetted by his trigger happy hit squads. The Gambia need your help. Our people are being enslaved, misruled, and abused by Jammeh. We rest our case.
Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 (Archive on Wednesday, April 26, 2006)
Posted by PANDERRYMBAI Contributed by PANDERRYMBAI
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