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Momodou
Denmark
11520 Posts |
 Posted - 18 Jun 2019 : 15:18:45
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Women victims testify...
Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission - TRRC·Tuesday, 18 June 2019
This Weeks hearings at the TRRC began with focus on some of the women victims of the former regime. Tata Camara of Janbureh, Duta Kamasso of Sutukoba and Binta Kuyateh of Brikamaba, all women, on Monday June 17th became the latest victims to narrate their harrowing and emotional ordeals before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission.
Their testimonies revealed details of the systematic distortion of the rule of law and good governance. In the opening session of the proceedings, Tata Camara told the Commission that she served the PPP government for almost 33 years before becoming a UDP member at the early moments of the party's formation when she was designated as the chairperson for Janjanbureh area.
She informed the commission that a few moments prior to the 2001 presidential elations, while working at her rice field, a police officer came and instructed her to come with her on the instructions of one Major Bojang who was at the time the regional commissioner for Central River Region. Upon arrival at the governor's premises, the governor questioned her as to why she was not supporting the APRC party and she insisted that she would never subscribe to the ideals of APRC. She further cited that when the commissioner failed to persuade her into joining the APRC, she was escorted by the Commissioner himself back to her house only to be arrested a few days later together with her one year, one month old baby by agents of the defunct National Intelligent Agency (NIA). She was detained for twenty-three days under horrific conditions.
Accord to Mrs Camara, the reasons for her arrest was to intimidate her and compelled her to downgrade her affiliation with the UDP. She said that the arrest was sanctioned by the reports of one Omar Mambureh, an NIA agent attached at Janjanbureh, aided by Kulu Gibba of the Gambia police force. Mrs. Camara lamented that while under custody, her breastfeeding baby was taken away from her and placed on a bare floor of the varanda before being taking away by relatives who continued to feed her with artificial milk.
While in solitary confinement at the NIA, the witness stated that neither family, nor legal visits were granted to her. She also said that food was served to her just once when she became malnourished and weak and food was then brought from the prisons, but she refused to eat. She was later released without any charge or trial.
Mrs Camara also testified that moments after Yahya Jammeh won the presidential election of 2001, the jubilating APRC supporters stormed her compound and vandalized the entire corrugated fence and her little children, one of whom was just eight years old, were arbitrarily arrested and detained at the police station for three days without charge.
The second witness, Dutta Kamaso who was a former APRC member of parliament for Wulli East, testified that she fell out with her party after being termed recalcitrant as she refused to be used as a puppet for the regime but rather to serve with due diligence for the overall interest of the Gambian people especially her constituency who elected her into office. She claimed to have been arrested in 2006 at the border village of Amdanlai after returning from taking her sick son to Dakar for treatment. She was escorted by a plain clothed official who claimed to be acting under directives. The witness told the commission that her documents were confiscated at the border and she was detained at the police headquarters and later escorted to her residence where her belongings were searched and subsequently, they arraigned her at the National Intelligent Agency headquarters in Banjul. There, she was interrogated about the newspapers she reads, people she communicated with and whether she knew Pa Nderry Mbai (an outspoken critic of the former regime who was operated an online radio in the United States
The former parliamentarian alleged that Fatoumatta Jahumba Ceeesay who was a nominated Parliamentarian at the time and Yankuba Touray former junta member and state minister, were the masterminds of her arrest because they thought that her divergent views were inimical to their party’s interest. She said she was later detained by the NIA for over four months and denied both legal, family and medical attention. Her release only came about after a threat of suing the agency for unlawful detention through lawyer Borry S. Touray.
Binta Kuyateh, a UDP supporter age 63 also gave a very emotional narration of her unlawful detetion in 2012 when she was arrested by officials of the police intervention unit from amongst the crowd of an APRC rally in Brikamaba. She was later transferred to Bansang Police Station where she was detained for the night and later held incommunicado at Janjanbureh prison for 23 days without legal or medical attendance but was later arraigned before the courts and tried for four months by four different magistrates. The witness alleged that her arrest was ordered by one Mr. Kanyi Nganjie/Ngangie Touray, who was a prominent member of the then ruling APRC party.
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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At the TRRC: Women victims testify...
