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Momodou
Denmark
11823 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Dec 2009 : 18:59:46
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English (http://www.rsf.org/International-community-urged-to,35338.html)
Français (http://www.rsf.org/Cinq-ans-apres-l-assassinat-de.html)
Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.org)
Press Release
15 December 2009
GAMBIA
International community urged to react five years after prominent
journalist’s murder
 On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the still unpunished murder of Deyda Hydara, the joint editor of the Banjul-based daily The Point, on 16 December 2004, Reporters Without Borders condemns the investigation’s obstruction by President Yahya Jammeh’s government and the international community’s failure to do anything about it.
“We express our solidarity with Hydara’s family and colleagues and with the Gambian press, which has been subjected to fear, silence and injustice since December 2004,” Reporters Without Borders said. “In view of the Gambian government’s lack of good faith, we urge the US intelligence services to release the information about Hydara’s death that they have at their disposal.”
The press freedom organisation added: “We also appeal to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is currently located in Banjul, to move its headquarters to another African capital.”
In an interview for the state-owned TV station GRTS in June, President Jammeh denied that the authorities were in any way involved in Hydara’s murder and suggested that his death was linked to his sex life.
When six leading journalists, including the editor and publisher of The Point and the editor of the opposition newspaper Foroyaa, issued a statement on behalf of the Gambia Press Union calling the president’s comments “inappropriate” and “provocative,” they were
sentenced to two years in prison on charges of defamation and “seditious publication,” spending a month in jail until freed on a presidential pardon.
The Agence France-Presse and Reporters Without Borders Gambia correspondent as well as The Point co-editor, Hydara was shot dead by gunmen travelling in a taxi while he was at the wheel of his car in a Banjul suburb on the night of 16 December 2004.
After carrying out its own investigation in Banjul, Reporters Without Borders issued a report in May 2005 entitled “Deyda Hydara, the murder of a journalist under surveillance” (http://www.rsf.org/
spip.php?page=article&id_article=13790) highlighting the serious grounds for suspecting that the Gambian security services and a semi-clandestine group of Jammeh supporters called the Green Boys were responsible for the murder.
The circumstances indicated that Hydara, who headed the Gambia Press Union and was the doyen of the country’s journalists, was targeted because of his frequent critical comments about the government.
The Gambian authorities promised to investigate Hydara’s murder but no serious investigation was ever carried out. A “confidential report” by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was given to the press in 2005 but it contained little aside from a number of mostly absurd theories about his death. It was the only official document about Hydara’s murder ever released by the authorities.
Since then, most of the key potential witnesses have disappeared, including the then head of the NIA, Daba Marenah. There has been no word of Marenah since he was arrested after being implicated in an alleged coup attempt.
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GAMBIE
Cinq ans après l'assassinat de Deyda Hydara, Reporters sans frontières appelle la communauté internationale à réagir
Le 16 décembre 2009 marquera le cinquième anniversaire de l'assassinat, toujours impuni, de Deyda Hydara, cofondateur du quotidien privé The Point. Reporters sans frontières dénonce l'obstruction de l'enquête par les autorités gambiennes et l'immobilisme de la communauté internationale vis-à-vis du gouvernement de Yahya Jammeh.
"Nous exprimons notre solidarité aux proches de Deyda Hydara, à ses collègues, et à la presse gambienne, plongée depuis décembre 2004 dans la peur, le silence et l'injustice. Face à la mauvaise foi du
gouvernement de Banjul, nous demandons aux services de renseignements américains de rendre publiques les informations dont ils disposent sur les circonstances de l'assassinat de notre confrère. Nous appelons également la Commission africaine des droits de l'homme à répondre enfin aux appels en faveur de la délocalisation de son siège, pour l'instant dans la capitale gambienne, dans une autre ville africaine", a déclaré l'organisation.
Dans un entretien donné en juin 2009 à la télévision gouvernementale GRTS, le président Yahya Jammeh démentait toute implication de l’Etat dans ce crime et estimait que le journaliste avait été tué pour une affaire de mœurs. Pour avoir qualifié ces commentaires de "provocateurs" et "inopportuns", six journalistes de l'Union de la presse gambienne (Gambia Press Union - GPU), du quotidien d'opposition Foroyaa, et du quotidien indépendant The Point, ancien journal de Deyda Hydara, ont été accusés, entre autres chefs d'inculpation, de "publication séditieuse" et de "diffamation". Ils ont été condamnés à deux ans de prison et ont finalement été graciés par le chef de l'Etat après un mois de détention.
Deyda Hydara, par ailleurs correspondant de l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) et de Reporters sans frontières en Gambie, a été tué par balles par des inconnus circulant dans un taxi, alors qu’il se trouvait au volant de sa voiture, dans la soirée du 16 décembre 2004, à la périphérique de Banjul. Dans les semaines qui ont suivi l’assassinat, sur la base d’une enquête menée sur place dont les résultats ont été publiés dans un rapport intitulé "Deyda Hydara : mort d'un journaliste sous surveillance" (http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=13789), Reporters sans frontières avait fait part des soupçons sérieux qui pesaient sur les services de sécurité gambiens, et notamment sur un groupe semi-clandestin de partisans du chef de l’Etat, baptisé les "Green Boys". Plusieurs éléments pouvaient laisser penser que Deyda Hydara avait été la cible de représailles pour faire taire les critiques acerbes que ce journaliste, ancien président de la Gambia Press Union (GPU) et doyen des professionnels du pays, adressait régulièrement au gouvernement.
L’enquête de police, promise alors par les autorités gambiennes, n’a connu aucune suite sérieuse. Le seul document officiel publié par les services de renseignements gambiens est un « rapport confidentiel », transmis à la presse en 2005, évoquant plusieurs pistes, pour la plupart absurdes, pouvant prétendument éclairer les circonstances du crime.
Depuis cette date, la plupart des témoins clés de l’affaire ont disparu, notamment le directeur de la National Intelligence Agency (NIA) à l’époque, Daba Marenah, dont on est sans nouvelles depuis qu’il a été arrêté après avoir été mis en cause dans une tentative présumée de coup d’Etat.
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Ambroise PIERRE
Bureau Afrique / Africa Desk
Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris, France
Tel : (33) 1 44 83 84 76
Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51
Email : afrique@rsf.org / africa@rsf.org
Web : www.rsf.org
Twitter : RSF_RWB
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Karamba
United Kingdom
3820 Posts |
Posted - 15 Dec 2009 : 20:41:35
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Yaya Jammeh is highly culpable for the cowardly murder of Deyda and many others on Gambian soil.
Yaya should be subject to proper sanction. He certainly has some information resting below his heavy tongue. Has he been destroying evidence by elimination of former Director of notorious brutal NIA Daba Marenah, a key state witness? That is what this statement suggests. |
Karamba |
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Santanfara
3460 Posts |
Posted - 16 Dec 2009 : 12:42:48
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009
DEYDA HYDARA, A MEDIA PRINCE
Suntou Bolonba
Our prayers goes to the family and friends of Deyda Hydara who was gun down on the 24December 2004. I was on holiday in the Gambia on that faithful December month. I couldn't believe what i heard on the news. Deyda was a well known personality in the media circles in the Gambia. Whoever killed him, should expect his own punishment. We might escape the law of our lands, but we cannot escape the law of the sustainer of human kind. I pray that, God bless the soul of Deyda and grant him Jannah.
The accusing fingers points to the dictator of Kanilai and his willing Hench men and women. Our message to them is, each blood you spill, your soul shall bear the brunt of the punishment later. You cannot escape the infinite justice of God. The death trap is, as you kill, your soul is wasted forever. You have little hope for salvation. Crimes committed on such abominable proportion demands equal recompense.
Why should people allow themselves to be used by another mortal man? Why should men place themselves at the service of other human being by committing acts which literally destroys ones present and next life?
It is so sad that people are allowing themselves to be bogey men for evil dictators in the capacity of Yahya Jammeh and his ilks.
Down with dictators and murders, down with all those who do the dirty jobs for them.
"There is no obedience to the creation in the disobedience of the creator" prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him). All those who abide by unlawful orders in killing fellow Gambians are the lowest of the low. Their lives are not worth living. Be man enough and decline to undertake such commands warranting in taking the life of another human being. What you do today will always live with you.
Rest in peace Hydara |
Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com |
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