Rights group, Amnesty International, has urged the Gambian government that the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) report, submitted to President Adama Barrow in Banjul on Thursday, must lead to justice and reparations for victims.
Established in December 2017, the main objective of the TRRC was to create an impartial historical record of violations and abuses of human rights from July 1994 to January 2017 in order to “promote healing and reconciliation, respond to the needs of the victims, address impunity, and prevent a repetition of the violations and abuses suffered by making recommendations for the establishment of appropriate preventive mechanisms, including institutional and legal reforms.”
“The Commission’s report must give way to an unequivocal commitment from the Gambian authorities that justice and reparations will finally be delivered to the victims of decades of human rights violations under President Yahya Jammeh’s regime.
“For more than 20 years, Gambians who fell foul of Jammeh’s regime were tortured, extrajudicially executed, and arbitrarily held for extended periods.
“Human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, sexual and gender-based violence and attacks on the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly were rampant,“ said Michèle Eken, Amnesty International West Africa researcher.
She added: “Now that the TRRC has submitted its recommendations, the government can bring to light the truth about this dark period in the country’s history and ensure that the victims can receive reparations for what they suffered.
“Perpetrators, some of whom are still in the security apparatus, should be brought to court and authorities must ensure that these state-sponsored human rights violations are never repeated.”
It was also meant to establish and make known the fate or whereabouts of disappeared victims and grant reparations to victims in appropriate cases.
On 15 October 2018, President Adama Barrow appointed and swore in the 11 Commissioners of the TRRC which began its hearings on 7 January 2019.
It submitted its Interim Report to the Government on 29 April, 2020.