By Mustapha Jarju
Essa Mbye Faal, former Lead Council of The Gambia’s Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) has sounded his view on the commission’s report which he said is non-political affiliated rather a considered all the victims of human rights violations during former tyrannical ruler, Yahya Jammeh.
The former TRRC lead counsel was answering a wide range of questions at the recent international conference supported by the Open Society Foundation on the Acceleration of the Effective Implementation and Monitoring of the government white paper on the commission’s report.
Responding to a question raised by the Spokesman of the Opposition United Democratic Party, Almamy Fanding, Mr. Faal a former presidential candidate explained: “we look at the people (victims) within the UDP whose rights were violated, and a lot of the violations that have been investigated, that affected the UDP you will see that their victimization has begun in 1995 to 1996 down to 2016, and within that period they have highlighted as far as the evidence is a concern most of the violations perpetrated against the members of the UDP party, and that was the approach,”
Fall added that other violations against the UDP include the Tujereng incident, where their members were attacked and arrested, which was part of the issues raised during the TRRC hearings.
Further seeking clarification and the action taken by the commission against the majority party that gave legitimacy to the dictatorship including the extension of the tenure of the former president during the political impasse, Taal said there was no recommendation about the operation of that political party, taking examples from other countries where some political parties were banned for the same crimes.
