By Abdul Tejan-Cole
In the past few weeks the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) has churned out startling revelations that sent the entire nation into a state of shock. Although many of what was revealed had been rumoured for years, it was still chilling to hear the confessions.
It started when Lt. Malick Jatta took the stand. Sgt. Omar Jallow alias Oya and Staff Sgt. Amadou Badjie who followed, corroborated and augmented the thrust of his accounts. The three former soldiers, together with many others, were part of the ‘Junglers’ – the elite hit-squad that executed the reign of terror and extrajudicial political killings during the 22-year reign of Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh.
The three henchmen who testified before the TRRC, confessed to shooting, decapitating and strangling their victims. They gave distressing accounts of how they tortured detainees and prisoners mainly at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Banjul and Jammeh’s hometown, Kanilai.
Their most famous victim was Deyda Hydara, the editor of the Point Newspaper and former president of the Gambia Press Union, a vocal critic of Jammeh who was murdered in December 2004 in an operation dubbed ‘magic pen’. In their evidence to the TRRC, one of the henchmen, Malik Jatta, described how as Hydara’s vehicle, arrived Tumbul Tamba, the Junglers’ leader, “told us this is the idiot…I shot, Sanna Manjang fired and Alieu Jeng also fired. I shot one. For my colleagues, I can’t tell how many shots they fired. Our commander, Captain Tumbul Tamba, was communicating to the former president, Yahya Jammeh, on the phone during the operation. He was saying to him, 'Yes Sir, Your Excellency’” Jatta testified.
He continued “En route to Kanilai, nobody spoke. The following day, Tumbul came with some envelope containing some dollars and said: ‘Gentlemen, this is a token of appreciation from the Big Man’ [president Jammeh]. When I changed mine, it was over 50,000 dalasi, about $1,800 at the time.”
Just as shocking and ghastly was the widely reported 2005 killings of 56 West African migrants, including 44 Ghanaians and others from Senegal, Nigeria, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. In July 2005, the migrants, who were on their way to Europe, were arrested by the NIA who handed them over to the Junglers. According to Sgt Omar Jallow who testified before the TRRC, Lt. Col. Solo Bojang, the operation’s leader, told the men that “the order from Jammeh is that they are all to be executed.” He explained further: “we picked them from near Coconut Residence and put them in two vehicles. We were briefed that there was also another group in the same operation. Sanna Manjang was the one giving that briefing…We collected them and headed for Casamance. When we got there, Solo Bojang said that these people were mercenaries and the orders from Yahya Jammeh were that these people were to be executed. Me and Alieu Jeng were collecting them one by one and taking them to the well and Malick Jatta and Solo Bojang were firing at them and they would fall into a well.”
The witness claimed that they were not told what they were to do with the migrants until they got to the bush. Jallow recalled how the last migrant they executed pulled a $100 bill and handed it to him. The unidentified migrant told him to take the money because it would not be of use to him after he died. Jallow said he took the money and agreed to a request of the migrant to say his last prayer. However, Sanna Manjang disagreed and, as the migrant knelt for prayers, Sanna’s shot came from behind, sending his victim into the well. Asked what he did with the money, “I ate it,” Jallow replied.
Despite several protests, Gambian officials failed to investigate the murders. Following pressure from Ghana, a joint United Nations (UN) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) investigation was conducted in 2009. Although the report was never made public it concluded that the Gambian government was not involved in the deaths. It blamed “rogue elements” in the Gambian security services “acting on their own”. The recent account of the Junglers before the TRRC has made complete nonsense of the conclusion of this report.
Based on the testimony of the Junglers, Gambians have also learnt the truth about the gruesome 2013 murder of two Gambian-American businessmen, Alhajie Mamut Ceesay, an infrastructure systems analyst for Chevron and Texaco in Houston, and Ebou Jobe, operations manager at Walmart. According to the testimony of Jallow and Badjie, Jammeh ordered that “they be chopped into pieces”. They have also learned of the death of Haruna Jammeh, Jammeh’s cousin, who according to Jallow was strangled in the bush near Kanilai, the torture of the outspoken cleric Imam Baba Leigh. According to Jallow, “we were ordered by Nuha Badjie to torture him. We beat him using sticks, elastic pipes and I saw blood and bruises on him. The torture lasted for about half an hour”. The 2012 execution of nine inmates at the Mile Two Prison and the dumping of their remains in a bush near Foni; the killing of Ex- Director General of The Gambia National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Daba Marenah and former Army Chief of Defense Staff military chief Colonel Ndure Cham who were implicated in a failed coup and former lawmaker Ma Hawa Cham and dozens others who have disappeared under mysterious circumstances during dictatorship of the Butcher of Kanilai.
Controversially, following their testimony the three Junglers were released from custody. It is not clear whether they have been granted amnesty under the TRRC Act. As expected, many of the victims are displeased by this decision. The victims see the decision to release them as premature. Although they have been in detention since 2017, they believe they should remain there until the TRRC determines their fate. Releasing them at a time when the public and victims are still coming to terms with the horrific details of the crimes they committed is ill-advised.
But their testimony has been instrumental in unearthing the details of atrocities committed on the orders of Jammeh. Without their insider testimony, it would have been challenging to get this evidence. It would have been impossible to understand the command structure of the Junglers. Thanks to them, we now know that the Junglers had at least three teams of executioners controlled at the strategic level by General Sulayman ‘Saul’ Badgie, head of state guards, and Tumbul Tamba, head of the patrol team who was based in Kanilai. The teams’ operations were led at different times by Solo Bojang, Sanna Manjang and Musa Jammeh, who was nicknamed “Maliamungu”, after Isaac Maliyamungu, a former hit-man of the Butcher of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada. They were all trained by an Italian, Francisco Cacaso, and received direct instructions and command from the person who bears the greatest responsibility - Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh.
Although Jammeh may not have pulled the trigger, his instructions and command led to the murders. He must, therefore, be tried for them. This will not be an easy task. Following his uprooting by ECOWAS in January 2017, Jammeh sought refuge in Equatorial Guinea. His staunch loyalist General Saul Badgie has also joined him there. Equatorial Guinea is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. Although Equatorial Guinea is a party to the United Nations Convention against Torture, which requires that states “extradite or prosecute “ alleged torturers found on their territory, it is unlikely to extradite Jammeh as it is itself plagued with decades of human rights abuse including torture.
Like Souleymane Guengueng and the other Chadian survivors who pursued Habre for 25 years until he was tried and convicted by the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC), an ad hoc hybrid trial set up by the African Union within the existing Senegalese justice system, Jammeh’s victims are persistent. No matter how long it takes, they will not rest until he is brought to justice. The African Union should consider a path to accountability, similar to the one in the Habre case. It must exert pressure on Equatorial Guinea to either prosecute him domestically, through a hybrid court or hand Jammeh over to a country that is willing to prosecute him. Article 4 (o) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union affirms the principle of respect for the sanctity of human life, condemnation and rejection of impunity and political assassination, acts of terrorism and subversive activities.
Jammeh’s atrocities were not only inflicted on Gambians. Other ECOWAS citizens were killed as well. It is therefore imperative that the quest to bring Jammeh to justice should not be left to Gambians alone. ECOWAS member states should collectively pursue avenues that will ensure that Jammeh is held accountable for his atrocities. Jammeh’s many victims deserve justice.
© 2019 Politico Online
