By: Adama Makasuba
Abdou Karim Jammeh, a victim of the 2000 April 10/11 student demonstrations, has told the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) that the April 10/11 victims need medical treatment, education, and social support.
Mr. Jammeh is one of several students’ protesters who were severely injured in the protest and had to drop out of school due to the long spell in hospital.
“We need treatment, we need education, and social support so that we can be independent enough rather than being seekers of help from the people,” he told the TRRC on Wednesday.
He added that:”We need justice and we need justice now.”
Mr Jammeh also called for immediate reform of the security sector, adding “so that they wouldn’t be used by any leader for their selfish ends”.
He urged President Adama Barrow “to ensure that no Gambian be maltreated anymore and that no Gambian be denied burial in their native land”.
Mr Jammeh called for the independence of the media and that “the media shouldn’t be any more censored by the State”.
Abdou Karim Jammeh was a grade nine student in 2000 when he was shot and badly injured by the police during a protest.
He was one of several students injured in the bloody crackdown by the Jammeh regime on student’s protesters and caused the deaths of 12 students including a journalist.
The April 10/11 2000 student’s protests were organized to demand justice for Ebrima Baldeh, a student, who died after being assaulted by security forces.
The April 10/11 crackdown is one of the worst human rights abuses in the history of the country and none of the security officers implicated in the death and injury of the students protesters have faced justice as the former regime of Yahya Jammeh granted them all indemnity.