By: Nyima Sillah
The Victims of Human Rights Centre has said in a issued statement that whatever path the government chooses, laws still have to be enacted, and former President Yahya Jammeh has to be extradited.
Jammeh, 57, has been grossly accused of committing rights violations which include ordering of killings, torture, arrest and detention and disappearance without trace during his 22-year rule.
The centre in a statement said the government could make it very difficult for Equatorial Guinea to resist a demand for Jammeh’s extradition by lining up the support of ECOWAS and entire region.
“In particular countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’vore whose citizens were illegally murdered under Jammeh’s orders. A request coming from an ECOWAS-backed court would be very difficult to refuse, but the initiative to create such court and the impetus for such regional backing has to come from the Gambian Government,” the release said.
The centre also welcomes and salutes the government’s acceptance of the TRRC’s recommendations and in particular its commitment to prosecute Jammeh and his accomplices.
“We had hoped that the government would provide greater clarity and detail on the judicial framework it intends to create for those prosecutions,” it said.
According to the centre, since 2019, the Gambia Bar Association has led a series of multi-stakeholder consultations which proposed a “hybrid” court, anchored on a treaty with ECOWAS, with Gambian and international staff, with a much greater role for victims than under the current Gambia system, and with the possibility of detaining suspects and holding trials outside of the Gambia.
“Whatever path the government chooses, however, laws still have to be enacted, the judicial framework has to be established, cases have to be prepared, and Yahya Jammeh has to be extradited. We are concerned that only days after the Minister of Justice stated flatly that President Jammeh will face justice for the atrocities that he committed in this country; President Barrow conducted a state visit to Equatorial Guinea and did not even raise the subject of Jammeh’s extradition.
“We are aware that president Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has said that he will protect Jammeh. However, Equatorial Guinea has rectified the UN Convention against torture which legally requires it to extradite Jammeh for alleged torture if it does not prosecute him.”
“However, it is mentioned in the report that, the Jammeh2Justice campaign, made up of victims of the former regime and the Gambian and international activists, calls on the government of the Gambia to take concrete steps to bring former president Yahya Jammeh and his alleged accomplices to justice,” it added.
