By: Adama Makasuba
Batch Samba Jallow, who appeared as the first civilian to testify before the Truth Commission has recounted the deplorable conditions, he and other 71 encountered during their detention at the Fajara Barracks in 1995.
Mr. Jallow told the Commission that they were kept in detention in a garage within the Fajara Barracks where they encountered all sort of tortures and maltreatment from the officials of the defunct National Intelligent Agency.
He described the place as terrible and that they (the detainees) felt sad and painful that their rights had been violated by the then regime of Yahya Jammeh.
“In the detention shield- there was neither window nor ventilation. We were there for 14 Months. We have no bed to sleep on,” he told the commission in tears.
Mr. Jallow, who fled into exile to the United States of America shortly after his released from jail, recalled that one day vultures invaded their detention place and ready to eat them and that the soldiers had to fire in the air to drive the vultures away.
“We didn’t take shower for 32 days and eighteen people were to a basin and one gallon of water was for a day, adding that the place stinks very terribly at the time. One day vultures came to eat us up and soldiers fired gun shots to protect us,” he said.
He further gave counts to his arrest on Oct. 12, 1995 that he was arrested by a group of four officers from the defunct National Intelligent Agency around 7pm and put into a white Volvo Minivan Wagon.
“I was arrested at Bakoteh Estate by a group of NIA soldiers in my house. They broke my compound gate and also my house main door and then found me in bed with my wife. They dragged me naked on the floor to the back door,” he told the commission in tears.
He then said it was Daba Maren, Baba Saho, Musa Kinteh and Foday Barry, who arrested him while he was in bed with his wife and that they tortured him mercilessly.