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Newfy
Western Samoa
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 Posted - 17 Aug 2006 : 01:23:02
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From the Gambia Journal
Human Rights Defenders in The Gambia continue to complain about the growing number of people being detained for durations longer than the 72 hours allowed by the constitution without being brought to a proper court of law and charged.
A defender told the Gambia Journal that she suspects that many may remain under custody without having their cases publicized. Many families fear going to newspapers to have the cases of their relatives published for various reasons, she moaned. "They fear going to the papers may bring the wrath of government upon them and even upon their detained relatives," she added. She told the Journal that she and few of her colleagues intend to start a project that will be documenting a register of missing and detained persons in The Gambia. She said the Gambian sate under the regime of Yahya Jammeh has "developed the arrest and detention of real or imagined dissidents into a policy instrument."
Whatever, the arrest and detention of people has increased since the alleged March 21st coup attempt. Nothing concrete has yet been done by any institution or civil society organization in the country though some of the arrests, especially of journalists, have attracted widespread international condemnations. Though many of the arrested are journalists there are some who are not.
Mrs. Duta Kamaso is a former member of the ruling APRC party who has now been in detention for more than 76 days. She was arrested while being on a journey with a sick child from Senegal. She is accused of circulating a petition among parliamentary colleagues calling for the payment of groundnut monies owed to farmers. She is allowed no visit by anyone, including family members and lawyers. Another non-journalist detainee is Captain Buba Jammeh, who was arrested and detained a day after Mrs. Kamaso's arrest. He too has been allowed no contact with family and potential legal aid.
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Gambia
Three days earlier than Captain Jammeh's arrest, an employee of the (MRC) Medical Research Council, Lamin Bojang was arrested and has still neither been seen or heard of from family members. The Rights defender who talked to the Gambia Journal under conditions of anonymity told the Gambia Journal that "At the moment no rights group dares engage in such cases frontally." They will end up in detention and possible torture, she said. "Even if a group dares do this, few lawyers will be ready to take on cases of habeas corpus on behalf of security detainees." She added.
Among the pressmen missing are Ebrima Chief Manneh whose whereabouts both the police and NIA (National Intelligence Agency) claim they do not know. Mr. Manneh who worked for the state-controlled Daily Observer newspaper, has been missing for almost 40 days now, Omar Bar, another colleague of Mr. Manneh's has been detained at the NIA headquarters in Banjul for almost 80 days.
Mr. Malick Mboob, a communication officer at the Royal Victoria Hospital, the country's main referral has been in detention for about 85 days according to our informant.
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The law an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mohandas Gandhi |
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