By Bineta DiagnePosted on 05-08-2019Modified on 05-08-2019 at 20:55

The hearings before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission resumed Monday (August 5th) in Banjul, The Gambia. In the courtroom, former death squads of the former president, Yahya Jammeh, "the junglers" as they are nicknamed. These testimonies contain a lot of details about crimes and human rights violations committed between 1994 and 2015. However, the release on Monday of three of them has caused consternation and emotion on the part of the families of victims.

On Monday, the Gambian Minister of Justice announced the release of three "junglers" who made confessions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in late July. According to the authorities, these people had already spent two years in prison. Indeed, Malik Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie had been in detention since February 8, 2017. However, there is, at this stage, no prosecution against them. Keeping them in detention would be illegal.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which started its hearings in January 2019, is not a court. " The mandate of the Commission is to identify those who bear the responsibility for human rights violations, " said Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou.

It is therefore only after the two years of hearings that the authorities will indicate on which cases the Gambian courts will open one or more investigations.

First-hand testimonials

On the merits, the junglers bring first-hand testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

They shed light on the assassination, on December 16, 2004, of the Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, AFP correspondent and founder of the daily newspaper The Point. Malick Jatta confessed to having " shot " the journalist, on the orders of President Yahya Jammeh. The soldier also quotes two accomplices, also members of the close guard Jammeh. As a reward, the soldier said he shared with his accomplices " an envelope of dollars ", given by the group's commander, Captain Tumbul Tamba.

Then, Omar Jallow returned to the massacre of a group of about forty West African migrants in July 2005. This "jungler" tells with coldness and in great detail how he killed several migrants, on order, he, Yahya Jammeh who took these migrants for mercenaries who came to make a coup against him. Omar Jallow explains that the bodies were buried in a mass grave in Casamance.

Finally, Staff Sergeant Amadou Badjie claimed that Yahya Jammeh had ordered the junglers to "cut in pieces" two Gambian-American businessmen whom he also suspected of planning a coup against him. . According to this militiaman, these two contractors had been arrested and taken to Kanilai, the birthplace of the former head of state. According to him, their murder allegedly took place in the garden of the former president, where he allegedly choked, decapitated and buried them.

The vice tightens around the former president Yahya Jammeh

These testimonies bring important details on several cases in which the name of Yahya Jammeh is quoted. This information seems to confirm that the former president, who has been living in exile since 2017 in Equatorial Guinea, was a prime contractor for several crimes tackled in recent months by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

However, a court - either in Banjul or at the subregional level - should officially take up this case to launch any possible prosecution.

Washington has in a statement " welcomed " the revelations concerning the death of the two American-Gambian contractors, believing that these revelations should allow to " relaunch the investigations ".

Human Rights Watch and Trial NGOs who investigated the massacre of a group of West African migrants last year seized Ghanaian authorities. Accra goes she, following these revelations of "junglers", also open a court file?

For its part, the Gambian president plays caution. Adama Barrow said in 2018 that he would wait for the completion of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to decide on a possible request for judicial extradition of Yahya Jammeh.

    On the same subject

    Gambia: How do families and victims experience Junglers' revelations?

    Gambia: the chilling account of the execution of Yahya Jammeh's cousin

    Gambia: Former President Jammeh accused of killing dozens of migrants

    Gambia: Former President Jammeh accused of murdering Deyda Hydara

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