BANJUL, Gambia
The Gambian government said Wednesday it will prosecute former dictator Yahya Jammeh for murder, rape, torture and other alleged crimes committed under his more than 20-year rule.
The Ministry of Justice said
it accepted all but two of the 265 recommendations made by a commission that
probed alleged crimes committed by the state under the despotic former leader
from July 1994 to January 2017.
Jammeh is living in exile in
Equatorial Guinea, which has no extradition treaty with The Gambia.
The government said it would
prosecute all 70 alleged perpetrators named in the Truth, Reconciliation and
Reparations Commission's twice-delayed report, including former vice president
Isatou Njie-Saidy and members of the so-called "Junglers" hit squad.
"For 22 years, Yahya Jammeh
ruled The Gambia with an iron fist," the government wrote in a white
paper.
"During his regime,
extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, enforced disappearances, and numerous
grievous human rights violations became part and parcel of his military Junta."
Abdoulie Fatty, a former local
legal consultant for the commission, called the government's decision
"unprecedented".
"This level of acceptance
of recommendations by government is extraordinary," he said.
"The fact that there is
strong emphasis for the prosecution of Jammeh and those who bear the greatest
responsibility sends a strong message that government is serious about pursuing
him and ensuring that he's held accountable for his crimes."
The government said it was
developing a "prosecution strategy" and would set up a special court
located within The Gambia, with "the option of holding sittings in other
countries".
The truth commission had
recommended prosecuting Jammeh and his accomplices in an internationalised
tribunal in another West African country.
"Impunity is a kind of
incentive that we are not prepared to serve perpetrators," Justice
Minister Dawda Jallow said in a speech Wednesday.
"Their resolve to commit
these atrocities cannot be stronger than our collective will as a society to
hold them to account."
The truth commission found
that 240 to 250 people, including AFP journalist Deyda Hydara, were killed by
the state during the eccentric ex-leader's rule.
Rights activists accuse
Jammeh, who turned 57 on Wednesday, of a litany of crimes, from using death
squads to sponsoring witch hunts.
The former president has also
been accused of administering phony HIV "treatment" programmes and of
the massacre of some 50 African migrants in 2005.
The commission recommended
prosecuting the former president and 69 other alleged perpetrators. The
government had until Wednesday to respond.
Jammeh was forced into exile
in early 2017 after his shock electoral defeat to current President Adama
Barrow and a six-week crisis that led to military intervention by other West
African states.
Barrow, who was re-elected in
December, last year formed a political alliance with Jammeh's former party and
nominated two known Jammeh supporters as speaker and deputy speaker of
parliament.
"Barrow and his government
know that the world is watching, [so] they did not have much choice but to
accept the TRRC recommendations," said Nana-Jo N'dow, the founder of an
NGO that campaigns against enforced disappearances and summary executions,
whose own father disappeared in 2013.
"The question now is
whether Barrow follows through on these recommendations, and swiftly."
Michele Eken, a West Africa
researcher with Amnesty International, said she hoped the justice ministry will
have enough resources to "do the job properly".
"The fact that the
minister held a press conference and reassured victims and civil society is a
positive step and we really hope that the minister will stay its course,"
she said.
The government said it would
prosecute Jammeh for the rape of the beauty queen Fatou Jallow, the murder of
journalist Hydara and the unlawful disappearances of other victims.
For Fatoumatta Sandeng,
spokeswoman for the Jammeh2Justice campaign, Wednesday's announcement is just
the next step in a long healing process.
Her own father, Ebrima Solo
Sandeng, a member of the opposition United Democratic Party, was tortured and
killed by security services in 2016.
"Truth and reconciliation
commissions have been launched in many countries," she said, adding that
their recommendations are often ignored.
"The most important work
right now is to make sure the recommendations are respected, implemented, and
you don't just put it aside like other commissions."
Reed Brody, a lawyer with the
International Commission of Jurists who works with Jammeh's victims, said the
government must follow up with concrete actions.
"Laws still have to be
enacted, a court has to be established, cases have to be prepared, and Yahya
Jammeh has to be brought into custody," he said.
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